
Tubal (died 1137 BC) was a Philistine merchant and the father of Semadar and Delilah.
Biography[]
Tubal was born in Timnah, Philistia, and he fathered Semadar and Delilah. Semadar grew to be a martially-inclined woman, while Delilah was shy and effeminate. In 1137 BC, both Prince Ahtur of the Philistines and the Israelite warrior Samson sought Semadar's hand in marriage, with Ahtur gifting Tubal precious linens as a gift to secure Semadar's hand. However, Samson won the approval of the Saran of Gaza to marry Semadar after slaying a lion with his bare hands and wrestling the Philistine warrior Garmiskar, and Tubal hosted a seven-day wedding feast at his home. However, Samson made a bet that the Philistines could not answer a riddle he proposed to them, demanding thirty linen outfits if they were unable to guess it within a week, and being forced to agree to give a similar gift to the Philistines if they could answer it. The Philistines cheated by forcing Semadar to obtain the answer from Samson, lest Ahtur burn down her family's home. Samson was thus forced to go out to obtain the cloaks, doing so by stealing them from the Philistines of Ashkelon. However, he found that Ahtur had taken Semadar as his own wife, and Tubal attempted to persuade Samson to marry his second daughter, Delilah, instead. Samson angrily thew Ahtur from a balcony at the crowd of wedding guests, starting a fight in which Semadar was accidentally impaled by a Philistine javelin. Samson set fire to the home during the scuffle, and the Philistine noble Gammad decided to leave Tubal to burn with his estate as punishment for the whole affair. Tubal and Semadar's deaths, and the burning of the mansion, led to Delilah swearing vengeance against Samson and working with the Saran to bring about Samson's downfall.