for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
"The Philistines were intensely religious. They celebrated their victories in the ’house of their idols’ (1 Samuel 31:9) [cf. Judges 16:23-27]. . . . Dagon . . . ’fish’ was represented with the hands and face of a man and the tail of a fish. . . . To . . . him they offered thanksgiving when they had taken Samson (Judges 16:23-24)." [Note: Unger’s Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Philistines," by Merrill F. Unger, pp. 859-61.] 