Samson

Samson and Delilah as you’ve never heard the story before!

Sam’s Son is my name; from my father,
But people I know call me Sam.
I was sickly a bit as a child,
But fit as a fiddle as a man.

The Philistines, they ruled my people;
But I killed some and burned all their straw.
They got angry, and rather excited,
And gathered to give me what for.

They searched high and low till they found me.
I was hiding inside a big cave.
But they found me and took me a prisoner.
They were going to put me in a grave.

The power of the Lord came upon me.
Then I saw the jaw-bone of an ass.
So I used it to kill near a thousand,
As fighters they weren’t in my class.

Like Adam, I just had one failing,
A woman quite lovely and tall.
I wish I had known when it started,
I was heading for quite a big fall.

For the Philistine kings she was working,
They wanted me helpless and dead.
But they knew that I carried a secret,
Here, in my handsome big head.

Delilah, she said, “Don’t you worry”.
To the Philistine kings before long.
“The way that I’m working upon him,
I’ll soon know why he is so strong”.

She nagged … and she nagged … for an
answer,
But I’m not only strong, I’m quite sly.
So to stop all her incessant moaning,
I decided to tell her a lie.

“If I’m tied up with seven new bow-strings”,
I said with my tongue in my cheek.
“Although I may fight and may struggle,
I wouldn’t escape for a week”.

That night I was tied up with bow-strings,
Whilst Philistines waited outside.
But I snapped them as easy as cotton,
And Philistines ran off to hide.

Delilah was peeved at the outcome,
I had made her feel such a buffoon.
But the Philistines don’t give up easy.
So they gathered and started back soon.

Twice more something similar happened,
Then I tired and I told her the truth.
I told her I’d not had a haircut,
Not even when I was a youth.

I don’t even know any barbers,
And that’s why my hair was so long.
But I promised my God I would keep it,
And he in return made me strong.

That night, as I lay in bed sleeping,
A Philistine came in with shears.
He cut off my locks and my tresses,
Then woke me by twisting my ears.

I found myself weak as a kitten.
I wished that I’d told her more lies.
As the Philistines all overcame me,
And laughingly pulled out my eyes.

I was tied up with chains to a pillar,
Whilst a party went on through the day.
I was the night entertainment.
Was the main cabaret.

Five Philistine Kings all attended,
So I prayed to my God for some help.
“If you give me some of my strength back.
I’ll make all your enemies yelp”.

God answered my prayer with a vengeance,
So I pushed against pillars of stone.
Which collapsed, and the roof along with it,
As it shattered and broke all their bones.

I’d been billed as the days main attraction,
And everyone thought me a clown.
But the critics were all wrong about me,
As an act I brought the house down.

One thing that you ought to remember,
If you want to be strong all your life.
Just watch what you’re saying to others
… Especially if others the wife.

© 1997 Dick Underwood

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