Samson

Samson was born to a barren woman after the angel of the Lord announced his birth and consecrated him as a Nazirite from the womb. He was never to drink wine, touch anything unclean, or cut his hair. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him as a young man, and he possessed superhuman strength for fighting the Philistines who oppressed Israel.

Samson's strength was legendary. He killed a lion with his bare hands, struck down thirty Philistines to pay a wager, caught three hundred foxes and used them to burn Philistine fields, and killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. When the Philistines locked him in Gaza, he tore up the city gates and carried them to a hilltop.

Yet Samson's weakness for Philistine women repeatedly led him into trouble. His first wife was given to another man, and his visits to a prostitute nearly got him killed. Finally, his love for Delilah proved his undoing. Despite her obvious attempts to discover the source of his strength, Samson eventually told her the truth: his power lay in his uncut hair. While he slept, she had his hair shaved, and "the Lord was departed from him."

The Philistines blinded Samson and made him grind grain in prison. But his hair began to grow. At a celebration in the temple of Dagon, the Philistines brought him out for entertainment. Samson prayed for strength one last time, pushed against the supporting pillars, and brought down the temple, killing more Philistines in his death than in his entire life.