Once again, in the Book's final gasp, the sorry cycle of Israelite treachery and Divine counter-wrath is stated, but this time the oppressors have a new identity. Gone are the Canaanites, Moavites, Midianites and Ammonites of earlier cycles, now replaced by a foe far more menacing and more fierce: the Philistines.
The character of Shimshon is introduced as a Nazir from birth which demands an in depth investigation of the laws of the Nazir.