Samson in rabbinic literature x. 13), was a member of that clan (comp. I Chronicles iv. 3). The name "Samson" is derived from "shemesh" ("sun"), so that Samson bore the name of God, who is also "a sun and shield" (Psalm lxxxiv. 12 [A. V. 11]); and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Sotah 10a); and he further resembled God in requiring neither aid nor help (Genesis Rabba xcviii. 18). In the blessings which Jacob pronounced on the tribe of Dan (Genesis xlix. 16-17) he
Twelve Tribes of Israel Twelve Tribes of Israel According to the Hebrew Bible, the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Tribes of Israel () descended from the 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob (who was later named Israel) and his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah. lists the twelve tribes: Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph and his Egyptian wife Asenath) to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the tribe of Joseph. In the biblical narrative, the period from the conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua until