Samson brings down the Philistine Temple of Dagon

Samson brings down the Temple of Dagon

Samson was one of the Judges in Israel, before the reign of kings started.  The Judge named Samson was a Nazerine so he never cut his hair and was blessed with incredible strength.  He slew many of the Children of Israel's enemies, the Philistines.  

After 20 years of being a judge, Samson hooked up with a treacherous Philistine woman, named Delilah   Delilah got Samson to give away the secret of his hair never being cut.  So when he was asleep she had Philistine men cut his hair.  Samson lost his strength.  

The Pilistines took him captive and put his eyes out.  They made him grind grain in prison.  He was in prison for a while and his hair grew back.  The Philistine leaders decided to have a great celebration and had Samson brought in to make sport of him.  But they put him between the pillars.   

Then Samson prayed to God.  I think Samson had repented of his sins while in prison.  When he prayed, while standing between the pillars, Samson said,  "O LOrd God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once,O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.  

Then Samson took hold of both pillars and said, "Let me die with the Philistines!"  And he pulled or pushed the pillars over.  They were the main supports for the roof and the Temple of  Dagon collapsed and killed 3,000 of the Philistines, including many of their rulers.  

Artist Note:  There was once some Archaelogical thought that Dagon was a Philistine God of Fish.  He was portrayed sometimes, anyway, as a merman.  Hence the wall carving of Dagon as a merman in my drawing.  More recent interpretation by modern archaeologists infer that Dagon may not have been a fish god.  I based my coloring page drawing on a painting of Samson I found on the Internet, however, I do not know the name of the painter.  I researched the idea of Dagon as a fish god, so that part I added myself.  One final note. . . I just noticed that the wall sculpture of Dagon looks like he is trying to stop the pillar from falling.  If he is trying to keep Samson from knocking his temple down, he's going to fail.