As I noted earlier, one of the techniques of biblical humor is too make fun of the ignorance or stupidity of others. We saw this between Manoach and his wife. She was astute, understanding that the "man" was in reality an angel. Apparently, the appearance of angels was something they were used to, since there was something about him being awe-inspiring that pointed to it. She could see it, her husband could not. My suspicion is that there was a certain aura, a radiance he had that she perceived. Jesus, too, had this radiance, depicted as a halo above his head.
After his birth story in chapter 13 of Judges, the next three chapters depict his relationship with the Philistines, in particular their women. Samson wants to marry one of them. His parents, who disapprove of intermarriage, try to talk him out of it. Here we see the humorous foreshadowing technique again. Samson wants her because כִּי־הִ֖יא יָשְׁרָ֥ה בְעֵינ, verse 3, "she is right (literally straight) in my eyes". The irony of this is that at the end of his life, he loses his eyes.
The foreshadowing technique continues when Samson kills a lion, and a year later, finds honey in the carcass of a lion. He will use this for his riddle at the end of the chapter. His vow of being a Nazir would forbid him from eating the honey, since it comes from an impure source. At the wedding, riddles play a humorous role since Samson cheats. The use of word play continues in the riddle (verse 14):
מֵהָֽאֹכֵל֙ יָצָ֣א מַאֲכָ֔ל וּמֵעַ֖ז יָצָ֣א מָת֑וֹק, "from the eater came out food and from strong came out sweet.
Biblical Hebrew likes the repetition of sound. Using the same root, in this case אכל, ah-chal, meaning "eat", the eater becomes the eaten. Normally riddles takes a certain logic and intelligence to answer. Without knowing that Samson ate honey from the carcass of a lion, it would be impossible to solve. This reminds me of Bilbo Baggins asking Gollum what was in his pocket. An impossible riddle to answer. The Philistines gain the secret by getting his wife to hound Samson for the answer. They answer Samson poetically in verse 18:
מַה־מָּת֣וֹק מִדְּבַ֔שׁ וּמֶ֥ה עַ֖ז מֵאֲרִ֑י, "what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion." Samson responds with his own poetic answer, accusing them of cheating as well:
לוּלֵא֙ חֲרַשְׁתֶּ֣ם בְּעֶגְלָתִ֔י לֹ֥א מְצָאתֶ֖ם חִידָתִֽי׃, "if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found my riddle."
Samson then goes and kills thirty Philistines, steals their clothes and pays off his debt, but loses his wife in the bargain.
In Chapter 15, when Samson discovered that his wife was given away, he seeks revenge. He captures 300 foxes, put torches between their tails, and burns the Philistines fields. How he was able to do this, I am not sure, but the image it presents in my mind is clearly meant to be funny. This sets off a series of events that would be perfect for a modern situation comedy, even thought the humor is somewhat dark. In revenge for Samson's act of burning their fields, the Philistines burn the woman and her father to death, which leads to another attack on them by Samson.
Even though Samson was from the tribe of Dan, the Philistines threaten the Judeans, who turn Samson over to them. Exaggeration being another device of humor is on display here. Samson kills 1000 Philistines with only a jawbone of a donkey, and again waxes poetic in verse 16:
בִּלְחִ֣י הַחֲמ֔וֹר חֲמ֖וֹר חֲמֹרָתָ֑יִם בִּלְחִ֣י הַחֲמ֔וֹר הִכֵּ֖יתִי אֶ֥לֶף אִֽישׁ׃, "with the jawbone of a donkey, one pile (of dead), two piles (of dead), with the jawbone of a donkey, I killed a thousand men.
Again we see a play on words. The root חמר, cha-mar, has multiple meanings. It can mean to ferment, such as wine; bitumen or asphalt; a pile or heap; or a donkey (BDB,pages 330-331). I again can picture the humor (dark as it is) in Samson standing over the bodies of a thousand dead Philistines reciting his poem. The chapter ends with an etiology of a spring that quenched Samson's thirst, since killing 1,000 men can make you thirsty.
Chapter 16 begins with a humorous anecdote of Samson carrying the gates of Gaza to Hebron, a short walk of 37 miles. The saga of Samson ends with his most famous adversary, Delilah. After repeated attempts to find the source of his strength, Samson reveals his vow. He is blinded by the Philistines after his hair is cut off. The stupidity of the Philistines is revealed in verse 22, when the Philistines let his hair grow back. To make fun of Samson, the Philistines also show their poetic ability in verse 24:
נָתַ֨ן אֱלֹהֵ֤ינוּ בְיָדֵ֙נוּ֙ אֶת־א֣וֹיְבֵ֔נוּ "Our god has given into our hands our enemy,
וְאֵת֙ מַחֲרִ֣יב אַרְצֵ֔נוּ the destroyer of our land,
וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר הִרְבָּ֖ה אֶת־חֲלָלֵֽינוּ׃ who multiplied our corpses."
Biblical poetry does not use rhyming as a technique. It prefers assonance and consonance, the repetition of vowel and consonant sounds. We see this in the use of the pronomial suffix נו, nu, meaning our. The use of poetry causes us to suspend our disbelief. Would we really expect the characters to be so poetic?
The story of Samson ends with a humorous epitaph in verse 30:
וַיִּהְי֤וּ הַמֵּתִים֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הֵמִ֣ית בְּמוֹת֔וֹ רַבִּ֕ים מֵאֲשֶׁ֥ר הֵמִ֖ית בְּחַיָּֽיו׃. "the dead that he killed with his death was more than he killed in life." A fitting ending for the dark humor displayed in his saga.
To conclude, I turn to Sigmund Freud for an explanation of this use of humor:
A joke will allow us to exploit something ridiculous in our enemies which we could not, on account of obstacles int he way, bring forward openly or consciously; once again, the joke will evade restrictions and open sources of pleasure that have been inaccessible. It will further bribe the hearer with its yield of pleasure into taking sides with us without any very close investigation, just as on other occasions we ourselves have been bribed by an innocent joke into overestimating the substance of a statement expressed jokingly. This is brought out with perfect attitude in the common phrase, 'die Lacher auf seine Seite ziehen' (to bring laughter over to our side. (Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious,
pgs. 122-123).
I have heard from many Holocaust survivors that those who could laugh survived. Maybe our sense of humor is the reason for Jewish survival over four thousand years of oppression.
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