He is sometimes considered as an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero also embodied by the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Enkidu, as well as the Greek Heracles.

The biblical account states that Samson was a Nazirite and that he was given immense strength to aid him against his enemies and allow him to perform superhuman feats,[3] including slaying a lion with his bare hands and massacring a Philistine army with a donkey's jawbone.

After being granted permission, he prays to God and miraculously recovers his strength, allowing him to bring down the columns – collapsing the temple and killing both himself and the Philistines.

According to the account in the Book of Judges, Samson lived during a time of repeated conflict between Israel and Philistia, when God was disciplining the Israelites by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines".

[11] The Angel of the Lord states that Manoah's wife was to abstain[12] from all alcoholic drinks, unclean foods, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair.

In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a time could take a Nazirite vow which included abstaining from wine and spirits, not cutting hair or shaving, and other requirements.

[9][10][11] Manoah's wife believes the Angel of the Lord; her husband was not present, so he prays and asks God to send the messenger once again to teach them how to raise the boy who is going to be born.

He then attaches a burning torch to each pair of foxes' tails and turns them loose in the grain fields and olive groves of the Philistines.

One day, the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands.

[32] Near the village there used to be shown a hewn rock, known as Qal'at al-mafrazah, on whose top and sides are quarried different impressions and thought to be the altar built by Manoah.

[10] Many Talmudic commentaries, however, explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society; rather, it means that he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders.

[36] He was lame in both feet[37] but, when the spirit of God came upon him, he could step with one stride from Zorah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance.

[10][38] Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth,[38][39] yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor.

)[43] It is said that, in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel, he never required the least service from an Israelite,[44] and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain.

[10][42] When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines, the structure fell backward so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father.

[46] Ambrose, following the portrayal of Josephus and Pseudo-Philo,[47] represents Delilah as a Philistine prostitute,[47] and declares that "men should avoid marriage with those outside the faith, lest, instead of love of one's spouse, there be treachery.

[55] Al-Tabari in particular has given details in History of the Prophets and Kings by incorporating biblical narratives with the authority of Israʼiliyyat tradition from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that his mother gave birth to him after she made a Nazar (vow) to God.

[56] Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi featured al-Tabari's narration in his tafsir with more extensive details, where the Nisba (onomastics) of Samson was "Shamsun ibn Masuh".

[57] Badr al-Din al-Ayni mentioned in his work of Umdat al-Qari Hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari exegesis, about the similar episode of the religious war done by Samson in 1,000 month.

Meanwhile, Tafsir al-Tha'labi work by Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thalabi also recorded this narration about Samson episode in Al-Qadr chapter interpretation.

[58] Some modern academics have interpreted Samson as a solar deity, as a demi-god (such as Hercules or Enkidu, among others) somehow enfolded into Jewish religious lore, or as an archetypical folk hero.

[34] These solar theorists also pointed out that the legend of Samson is set within the general vicinity of Beth Shemesh, a village whose name means "Temple of the Sun".

[34] An interpretation far more popular among current scholars holds that Samson is a Hebrew variant of the same international Near Eastern folk hero which inspired the earlier Mesopotamian Enkidu and the later Greek Heracles (and, by extension, his Roman Hercules adaptation).

[34] Both heroes, champions of their respective peoples, die by their own hands:[34] Heracles ends his life on a pyre; whereas Samson makes the Philistine temple collapse upon himself and his enemies.

[34] These views are disputed by traditional and conservative biblical scholars who consider Samson to be a literal historical figure and thus reject any connections to mythological heroes.

[66] In contrast, James King West considers that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a "purely personal and local sort".

[68] Some academic writers have interpreted Samson as a suicide terrorist portrayed in a positive light by the text, and compared him to those responsible for the September 11 attacks.

According to Haaretz, "excavation directors Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University say they do not suggest that the human figure on the seal is the biblical Samson.

"[81] The 1949 biblical drama Samson and Delilah, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the titular roles, was widely praised by critics for its cinematography, lead performances, costumes, sets, and innovative special effects.

[86] In 1735, C. B. Rastrelli's bronze statue of Samson slaying the lion was placed in the center of the great cascade of the fountain at Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg.