Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Joy
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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*JUDGES *
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*SAMSON’S POTENTIAL*
*1. **The Context *
*a. **Philistines *
Dominion: “/at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel/” [14:4].
§ Divine action: “/the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines/” [13:1].
§ Method: inter-marriage and trade.
*b. **Israel** *
Israel: “/children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord/…” [31:1].
§ Tolerance, compromise and a ‘don’t rock the boat syndrome: “/said to Samson, What is this that you have done unto us/?” [15:11].
§ Judah is in danger of extinction because of its close relationship with the Philistines.
*2. **God’s Answer *
*a. **New Life *
New life from God:
§ Divine choice: “/there was a certain man/…” [13:2].
§ Divine action: “/barren…you shall conceive/…” [13:5].
§ Divine initiative: the absent feature of “/cried to the Lord/…” [10:10].
*b. **New Lifestyle *
New lifestyle: “/no razor shall come upon his head/…” [13:5].
§ Distinct intellectually: “/drink not wine…put a difference between the holy and the unholy/” [Lev.10:10] and so that “you may teach the children of Israel” [Lev.10:12].
§ Distinct socially: “/eat not anything unclean/…” [13:4].
*3. **The Potential *
This life and lifestyle has potential: “/the Spirit of the Lord began to move him/…” [13:25].
§ תָּ֙חֶל - “/began/” [13:25], hiphil imperfect, ‘to bore through’; ‘to pierce’; ‘to begin’;
§ לְפַעֲמֹ֖ו - “/move/” [13:25], qal infinitive construct, ‘to thrust’; ‘to impel’; ‘to stir’;
§ Contrast Samson and Israel: Israel is characterised by inter-marriage, cultural integration and assimilation.
*a. **Evidence [14:6].
*
One evidence of this fact: “/came to a vineyard of Timnath/…” [14:5].
§ Danger: “/a young lion roared against him/” [14:5].
*i. **The Victory *
God was with Samson: “/the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him/” [14:6].
§ תִּצְלַ֨ח - “/came mightily/” [14:6], qal imperfect, ‘to have an overpowering force’;
§ יְשַׁסְּעֵ֙הוּ֙ - “/rent/” [14:6], piel imperfect, ‘a cleft or split, for example, in a hoof’; in the piel ‘to tear apart’;
*Application*.
Samson’s potential for greatness; Samson’s potential to do great things for God in his day.
§ So that the agenda set for him in [13:5-7] may begin to be fulfilled.
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*SAMSON’S FATAL FLAW *
*1. **The First Test *
Samson “/went down to Timnath/” [14:1] and there we see the first test.
§ יֵּ֥רֶד - “/went down/” [14:1], ‘to descend’; ‘to decline’
*a. **Samson’s Desire *
In Timnath: “/I have seen a woman…get her for me to wife/” [14:2].
§ Woman: “/a daughter of the Philistines/” [14:1].
§ רָאִ֥יתִי - “/seen/” [14:2], qal perfect, ‘use perception of sight to view objects and make judgements’;
*b. **Possession *
Samson’s lust drives his need to possess: “/get her for me to wife/” [14:2].
§ קְחוּ־אֹותָ֥הּ - “/get her/” [14:2], qal imperative, ‘to take’; ‘to grasp’; ‘to take from, to, out of’;
*i. **Determination *
Samson’s determination: “/Get her for me; for she pleases me well/” [14:3].
§ אֹותָ֣הּ - “/her/” [14:3], direct object marker plus 3rd feminine singular, first for emphasis,
§ קַֽח־לִ֔י - “/get her for me/” [14:3], qal imperative,
§ יָשְׁרָ֥ה - “/pleases me well/” [14:3], ‘to be level, straight’; ‘to be right’; >>> ‘miss right’.
§ בְעֵינָֽי - “/pleases/” [14:3], literally ‘in my eyes’;
*2. **The Problem *
*a. **Parental Authority *
His parent’s direction: “/is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren/…” [14:3].
§ הָעֲרֵלִ֑ים - “/uncircumcised/” [14:3], mark of the covenant: “/this is my covenant…every man child among you shall be circumcised/” [Gen.17:10].
§ Parents’ concern for God’s order and agenda: “/a Nazarite unto God…begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines/” [13:5].
*b. **Word of God*
Inter-marriage with non-Israelites is forbidden: “/when the Lord thy God bring thee into the land/…” [Deu.7:1].
§ Destruction: “/smite them, and utterly destroy them/…” [Deu.7:2].
§ Relationships: “/thou shalt make no covenant with them/…” [Deu.7:2].
§ Marriage: “/neither shalt thou make marriages with them/…” [Deu.7:3].
*c.
**Narrator *
In the narrator’s eyes ‘Samson represents the nation’:
§ This person – uniquely set apart, called, and gifted for divine service – not only fraternises with the enemy, but he also seeks to live among them.
*Application*.
Divine diagnosis of Samson’s philosophy: “/every man did that which was right in his own eyes/” [17:6].
§ The marriage symbolises Israel’s willingness to coexist peacefully with the Philistines.
§ Selfish desire and lust take control: powerful, merciless and destructive
§ Samson~/Israel: ‘If it feels right, it is right’; no absolutes; relativism.
§ The great battleground of our time is the battleground for authority.
§ He was unafraid of a venture into the pagan world.
§ He was undaunted by potentially compromising situations.
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*THE TESTS *
*1. **The Spiritual~/Secret Test *
*a. **The Corpse *
The object: “/he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion/…” [14:8].
§ יָּ֣סַר - “/turned/” [14:8], ‘to turn aside’; ‘to depart’; ‘change in direction from course or path’;
§ מַפֶּ֣לֶת - “/carcass/” [14:8], ‘downfall, destruction, ruin’;
*b. **The Attraction *
The attraction: “/behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey/…” [14:8].
§ עֲדַ֧ת - “/swarm/” [14:8], ‘congregation’; ‘community assembly’; ‘socio-religious group’;
§ דְבָֽשׁ - “/honey/” [14:8], ‘the sweet viscid product of bees collecting pollen’;
*c. **The Prohibition *
The prohibition is clear: “/whosoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean/” [Lev.11:24].
§ Contact with a dead body is particularly defiling for a Nazarite: “/all the days…he shall come at no dead body/” [Num.6:6].
*d. **The Outcome *
For a person who operates by his senses, these bees and their honey will test his spiritual mettle: “/he took thereof in his hands/…” [14:9].
§ יֵּ֤לֶךְ הָלֹוךְ - “/went on/” [14:9], qal imperfect plus qal infinitive absolute, ‘to go, walk, travel’;
§ אָכֹ֔ל - “/eating/” [14:9], qal infinitive absolute,
§ The whole phrase highlights the insensitive and uncaring nature of the act; his couldn’t care less attitude to the situation.
*i. **Parents in Ignorance *
This attitude leads to implicating others: “/came to his father and mother and gave to them/” [14:9].
§ יֵּ֙לֶךְ֙ - “/came/” [14:9], qal imperfect, ‘to go, walk, travel’;
§ יִּתֵּ֥ן - “/gave/” [14:9], ‘give as a gift’;
§ הִגִּ֣יד - “/told/” [14;9], hiphil perfect, ‘to report’; ‘to speak information’;
*Applications*.
Samson’s perversity knows no bounds.
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