“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” This line—frequently attributed to Mark Twain—captures something deeply true about how the Bible tells its stories.

Biblical authors carefully select and shape historical events to create patterns and evoke features from earlier accounts. They signal these connections by telling stories in a similar sequence, including unusual shared details, and using similar wording. When the goal is critique rather than commendation, the parallels contain subtle points of dissonance. What begins as a familiar echo can collapse into discord, where expected harmony is replaced by dissonance.

That’s exactly what happens in Samson’s career. His entire story mimics Moses’s life. The most important and clearest case appears in Judges 15, where Samson’s battle at Lehi, his boast, and his thirst recall scenes from the exodus. But instead of a new and improved deliverer, Samson reads more like a distorted echo—a kind of anti-Moses, one who glorifies himself rather than leads God’s people to trust and worship the Lord.

When Samson Rhymes with Moses

So how can we tell these connections are intentional? Through order and rarity. Concerning order, Moses and Samson share this five-part sequence (Ex. 14–17; Judg. 15:9–19):

1. Great deliverance

2. Victory song

3. Complaint of thirst

4. Water from a rock

5. Name of location

But is this rare? Yes. No other biblical characters share this identical sequence, and its details highlight this exceptional contrast. Only three deliverers sing victory songs after battle: Moses (Ex. 15), Samson (Judg. 15), and Barak (Judg. 5). And only two deliverers in the Old Testament receive water from a rock—Moses (Ex. 17:5–7; Num. 20:6–13) and Samson (Judg. 15:19).

When Samson Rhymes in Discord

For Samson, subtle contrasts to Moses and the exodus diminish his success as a deliverer. At the Red Sea, Moses urges the terrified Israelites not to fear but stand and watch the Lord deliver them (Ex. 14:13–14). He destroys Israel’s greatest oppressors and leads the entire nation out of bondage.

Instead of a new and improved deliverer, Samson reads more like a distorted echo—a kind of anti-Moses.

At Lehi, the scene is reversed. The Israelites don’t tremble before their oppressors; they aid them (Judg. 15:9–12). Samson never exhorts Israel to trust the Lord and watch for deliverance. Instead, Samson himself is bound (by the Israelites!) and handed over to the Philistines (15:12–13). When the Spirit of the Lord rushes on Samson and breaks his bonds, Samson seizes a jawbone and strikes down a thousand Philistines (vv. 14–15). The victory is astonishing, yet the outcome is far more limited. Israel remains oppressed, and Samson is the only one delivered.

Victory in both stories is followed by a song that reveals the deliverer’s heart. At the Red Sea, Moses and the Israelites sing a lengthy song to and about the Lord. At Lehi, Samson proclaims a two-line, self-gratifying boast: “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men” (v. 16). Samson leads none in worship and gives the Lord no credit for victory.

Thanklessness resurfaces in the next scene when thirst takes hold. Both accounts state that someone became thirsty and thought they might die of thirst (Ex. 17:3; Judg. 15:18). Surprisingly, the pairing is no longer Samson and Moses but Samson and Israel. Through shifts in pairs, biblical authors build complex characters. In this instance, Israel, only fleetingly content, complains of thirst in the wilderness three days after their deliverance (Ex. 15:22–25; see 17:1–7). Not to be outdone, Samson grumbles to God that same day (Judg. 15:18). Samson’s tone resembles Israel’s; he accuses rather than beseeches. He looks less like Moses, who stands between the people and the Lord. Samson speaks only for himself.

Even so, the Lord answers Samson. God splits the ground and brings forth water (v. 19), just as he does for Israel through Moses (Ex. 17:6). The Lord’s grace powerfully meets Samson’s need, but the moment is smaller; it’s only for Samson. To commemorate the occasion, Samson names the site “The Spring of the Caller” (En-hakkore), putting the focus on himself rather than the Lord (Judg. 15:19). Exodus’s parallel account subtly reinforces a negative picture of this event. There, Moses names the sites Massah and Meribah after Israel’s sinful quarreling with God (Ex. 17:7). Here, too, the deliverer Samson names the place after the sinner—himself.

Whom Will We Rhyme With?

The shape of the Lehi story is familiar; it resembles the exodus. Samson clearly follows Moses’s pattern but not his posture. Moses delivers Israel; Samson delivers only himself. Moses sings with others to the Lord; Samson sings alone and only for himself. Moses intercedes for Israel; Samson complains like the Israelites.

Samson clearly follows Moses’s pattern but not his posture.

The story rhymes with Moses’s but in a deliberately discordant key. That discord critiques Samson and teaches that true deliverers serve the Lord and lead others to worship, trust, and follow him. Where Samson fails and Moses only foreshadows, history rhymes again in Jesus Christ, the ultimate human and divine Deliverer. As we follow him, the measure of our ministry is whether we lead others to worship Christ rather than ourselves. Salvation is too beautiful to be self-serving.