Allusions in rabbinic literature to the Biblical character Samson, the ancient Israelite hero who fought the Philistines with supernatural strength, contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond what is presented in the text of the Bible itself.
[1] On the maternal side, however, he was a descendant of the tribe of Judah; for his mother, whose name was Zelelponith[2] or Hazzelelponith,[3] was a member of that clan (compare I Chronicles 4:3).
He was lame in both feet,[4] but when the spirit of God came upon him he could step with one stride from Zoreah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance.
[17] In the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel,[18] he never required the least service from an Israelite,[19] and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain.
[15] When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines,[21] 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.