MEANWHILE the Philistines[215] on the south-west had not only established themselves in the Shephelah, or Low Country, but now commenced that long and deadly hostility to the Israelites, which lasted from this time through the reigns of Saul and David, and was not finally terminated till the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 8). Their oppressions naturally pressed most heavily on the little tribe of Dan, already hard pushed by the Amorites. From this tribe, then, the Deliverer came. But unlike others who had been called to the same office, he was specially set apart for it even before his birth. On the high hill of Zorah overlooking the fertile lowlands of Philistia lived a Danite named Manoah. To his wife, who as yet had no child, it was announced by an Angel that she was about to become the mother of a son, whom she was to devote as a Nazarite[216] unto God from his birth; no razor was ever to come upon his head; wine and strong drink he was never to touch; and he should _commence_ the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines (Judg. xiii. 5). These words were announced to Manoah by his wife, and a second appearance of the Angel was vouchsafed to assure both parents of the certainty of these events, which was further confirmed, as in the case of Gideon, by the disappearance of the Angel in the flames which consumed the Danite’s meat-offering (Judg. xiii. 20). In process of time the child was born, and was named SAMSON, either _the sunlight_, or _the strong_. As he grew, he became distinguished for supernatural strength, and from time to time in Mahanah-Dan, the camp of the famous Six Hundred of his tribe[217], was moved to perform those exploits which made him the terror of the Philistines. His first action, however, when come to man’s estate, did not display that hostility to the national enemy which his parents would naturally have expected. At Timnath, then in the occupation of the Philistines, he saw one of the daughters of the place, whom he was resolved to marry. Very unwillingly did his father and mother give their consent, and went down from Zorah with their wayward son “through wild rocky gorges” to the vineyards of Timnath, situated, as was often the case, far from the village to which they belonged, and amidst rough wadies and wild cliffs[218]. In one of these Samson encountered a young lion, and, though he had nothing in his hand, rent it _as he would have rent a kid_. Thinking little of the circumstance, he did not mention it to his father and mother, but went with them to Timnath, and talked with the woman, and she pleased him well. On his second descent through the same wild rocky pass, he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and discovered amongst the bones a swarm of bees. A portion of the honey he took himself, and gave a portion to his parents, saying nothing of his exploit, or the place whence he had obtained the honey. The wedding festival was celebrated at Timnath, and lasted several days, on one