take me out tonight, where there's music, and there's people, and they're young and alive
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
{4:15 AM}
samson and delilah
soo, in case you didnt know, i've been obsessed with the song 'samson' by regina spektor. so naturally, after listening to it on repeat for a couple of days, i started to wonder what it was about. apparently, apart from being a personal story from regina, its about the biblical couple, samson and delilah. now, i dont usually read things that have to do with religion, but once in a while interesting stuff like this pops up. there's a full version of it online, but im just going to put the significant parts up.
The Bible records that Samson broke all of his Nazarite vows. He drank wine, he ate grapes, he touched a dead body and he did not dedicate himself totally to the Lord God. When he touched a dead body he found honey in the dead body of a lion. He scooped out the honey and ate some of it then took the rest of the honey to his parents without telling them where he had gotten it.
Samson's great weakness was beautiful women. Samson fell in love with a beautiful Philistine woman named Delilah. Night after night he visited her residence to spend hours with her. He thought that he was hopelessly in love with her because of her great beauty and charm.
Delilah had been promised a great sum of money from the Philistines if she could discover the secret of his increduible strength. Every day Delilah teased and begged Samson to tell her the secret of his tremendous strength. To get her to stop begging him on several different occasions he told her false things that would destroy his strength He told her, "If you tie me with seven bowstrings I will lose my power."
While Samson was sleeping she tied him with seven bowstrings and shouted, "Samson! Wake up! The Philistines are upon you!"
Samson awoke, shook himself free of the bowstrings and fought the Philistines. He overcame them with his great strength.
Delilah cried and begged again, "Samson, you do not love me. If you loved me you would tell me the secret of your strength."
Again Samson told her another lie, "If you bind me with seven brand new ropes I shall lose my strength."
Delilah bound him with seven new ropes and shouted, "Samson, wake up! The Philistines are upon you."
Samson awoke and shook himself. The ropes fell off and he fought off the Philistines. He beat them all.
This time Delilah cried for days, saying, "You don't love me. You won't tell me your secret."
Samson then told her that if she wove the seven locks of his hair with a loom he would lose his strength. This time, in mentioning his hair, Samson was getting too close to telling the secret that God did not want him to tell.
Delilah wove his seven locks of hair with a loom. She shook him and shouted again, "Samson awake! The Philistines are upon you!"
As we can guess, Samson shook off the loom and fought against the Philistines, beating them again.
After all of these times that Delilah had committed wrongs against him we should think that Samson would guess that Delilah was not his true friend. Nevertheless Samson kept coming to her home. Delilah was exasperated with Samson. He had lied and lied to her. She wanted that money that the Philistines had promised her. She cried and cried, begged and pleaded for him to tell her his secret. Finally Samson caved in just to have peace. "If you cut off all of my hair I shall be as weak as any other man."
When Samson slept with his head in Delilah's lap she beckoned the men to shave off his hair. Once again she shook him and shouted, Samson! Wake up! The Philistines are upon you.!"
Samson shook himself to fight the Philistines, but his hair was gone. His strength was gone. The Philistine soldiers jumped upon Samson and beat him badly. Samson was overcome. Delilah, in the name of love, had betrayed him completely.
The Philistines took him prisoner, burned out his eyes with a hot poker and chained him to the huge stone wheel pulled along a trough to grind grain into flour, around and around, all day long, every day. Samson was destined to spend the rest of his days doing the job that an ox would do, grinding at the mill. He frequently was put on display for the Philistine people to mock him and to heap scorn upon him as their former mighty enemy whom the Philistines had reduced to a life worse than death.
One day Samson felt the breeze blowing through his hair which had begun to grow again, and he realized that his incredible strength was returning. He heard that there was to be a great festival in the Temple of Dagon, the Philistines’ false god. Three thousand people, including the Philistines’ most powerful political, military and religious leaders would be present in the temple, worshipping their false god.
Samson prayed earnestly, “Oh, God please forgive me for my sins and please use me for your glory one more time.”
That's the story. you get the drift right? so i was thinking how the song wasnt really about delilah. in the song, there are the lines
"The history books forgot about us, and the bible didnt mention us"
I think its about a woman that loved samson before delilah, and maybe she didnt betray him, which was why she didnt earn her place in the history books, and the bible (because it was meant to have morals)
"Your hair was long when we first met"
Which means that before Delilah (or the other girl) cut his hair, it was long, obviously because he wasnt supposed to cut it.
"I cut his hair myself one night, a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light, and he told me that I'd done alright, and kissed me till the morning light"
I'm actually not sure. I guess it means that Samson trusted her enough to cut his hair, and maybe it was alright to cut his hair because he knew that she wouldnt betray him?
"I loved you first" Probably meaning that she loved Samson before Delilah, and for some godforsaken reason he left her for Delilah?
Sooo. This is an attempt for me to dissect my current favourite song. I love finding out stuff like this. I mean, even if you dont read the Bible (which I dont), sometimes theres stuff like this inside. Like scandulous stuff! But I really dont know whether or not Delilah loved Samson, or whether this is even about Samson & Delilah. It could be about anyone...But I'd say that it has to do with a woman before Delilah, if there was one...
xoxo
ykylm
the girls's name is Eleni Sofia Tsonis! She dosen’t leave the house without her phone, camera and purse, which hold all her junk! She loves loves her friends. She enjoys texting on her sony ericsson, listening to her ipod nano, playing her guitar, baking, talking, finding some deals at the local mall, reading, and having a girls night. She paints her nails only bright colors to match her personality! LOL! She likes things to be bright and not dark, happy and not sad and sunny not cloudy. Thunderstorms are great though!