Samson Is Buried by His Family

The family buries Samson between Zorah and Eshtaol in Manoah’s tomb.

The temple fell on Samson and its occupants in 16:28-30. The next verse turns from collapse to family care and burial in his father's territory, near the area named in 13:25. The repeated judgeship total closes the Samson cycle. Chapter 17 shifts to Micah's household and continuing disorder in Israel.

The violent public death is followed by a family burial and a bounded summary of Samson’s service.

Understanding the Big Idea

Samson's brothers and his father's family retrieve his body and bury him between Zorah and Eshtaol in Manoah's burial place. The narrator then repeats that he judged Israel twenty years. The family act closes his life after the temple deaths; the tenure notice restates the same twenty years given in 15:20, not a second period, and it does not pronounce full national liberation or an unqualified moral verdict.

To close Samson’s life with his family’s retrieval and burial of his body and the repeated twenty-year judgeship notice.

Samson’s family burial is not the gospel’s ending. Christ died for sins and was raised (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); the repeated tenure notice should not be turned into a claim that Samson completed the deliverance Christ alone fulfills.

1. Who retrieves Samson’s body?
2. Where is he buried and whose tomb is named?
3. Where did Zorah and Eshtaol appear earlier?
4. How long did he judge Israel?
5. Why is that duration not added to 15:20?