Judges 16:1-22--Samson and Delilah

Judges 16:1-22
English Standard Version

Samson and Delilah
16 Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3 But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” 6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” 11 And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

15 And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

​18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

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If we know anything about Samson, it's probably this story--the story of his tragic downfall.  Samson still still loved going after prostitutes from gentile areas.  This time he went all the way to Gaza (in the southwest region of Israel).  The Gazites heard that Samson was there and they desired to capture him.  The set an ambush for him at the city gates at night so that in the morning they would be sure to catch him on his way out, but Samson somehow knowing of their plan (the text doesn't tell us how he knew) makes a midnight escape by ripping up the gates of the city, their posts, bars and all, and carries them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron (leaving the Gazites with a wall that provides no protection since they no longer can close the gate to the city).

​Next he falls for another woman in the same general area as his wife that was from Timnah, for the Valley of Sorek is just northwest of there.  This woman is not identified as a prostitute, but she is either allied with the Philistines or a Philistine woman, because the Philistines come to her and easily convince her to seduce Samson and get him to tell her the secret of his strength so that they can finally capture him.  Commentaries that I've read say that there were five "lords" or "kings" of the Philistines over their 5 large cities--Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath.  This is how the last story ties in with this one as the inhabitants of Gaza were unable to capture Samson by themselves so they are now teaming up with all the other leaders of the Philistines.  They know that Samson has a weakness for women and that he has already revealed a secret to a woman that he didn't even tell his parents.  This means that Delilah would have been promised a sum of 5,500 pieces of silver.  It's not certain exactly how much value each of these coins had, but it was quite a large sum of money.

Samson decides to make a game out of this and tells Delilah several lies about how to try to restrain him so that he might be subdued.  Each time, Delilah ties him up and then calls out to him that the Philistines are coming--first seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then new ropes that had not been used, and then by weaving seven locks of his hair in a web and fasten it tight with a pin (he's getting closer to telling the truth that there is something special about his hair, but still playing games with her at this point)--and every time he breaks free of the bonds and the men laying in ambush for him were not able to overtake him.  Each time Delilah tries to guilt Sampson for not telling her his secret and embarrassing her.

She finally got him to break and he told her the secret of the Nazarite vow that he was under from before the time of his birth and that one part of the vow was that no razor could ever touch his head (he was never to cut his hair).  His long hair was not simply a sign of rebellion like it probably would have been among the Philistines, but should have meant just the opposite to the Jews--he was a man totally devoted to God.  Samson was willing to give up that promise and commitment that he made for this woman.  He had made sex into an idol and he worshiped this more than he worshiped the LORD.  This story is less about Samson's actual hair and more about the fact that Samson is willing to abandon his identity the LORD had given to him and is willing to be bound and captured (giving up his position of judge over Israel) for this Philistine woman that he should never have gotten involved with in the first place.  She had broken him and turned his heart, and she knew it.  The Philistine lords knew it too as they delivered the bounty of 5,500 silver coins to her even before she had Samson's hair cut off.  It was the fact that he had given his heart to her that would be his undoing.

To say that their relationship was "kinky" is an understatement as it appears that Delilah was a bit of a dominatrix for it says she made him sleep on his knees (she is the one in control here).  Samson must also have been a very sound sleeper to have let her bind him and even weave his hair in a web using a loom while he's asleep, and now he's going to let someone cut off all seven of his locks of hair.  The text says that she tested him this time by tormenting him and it was obvious that his strength had left him.  She again called out that the Philistines were upon him, and we can see that this was just a game to him as he imagined that he would shake himself free as before, but this time the Spirit of the LORD had left him.  "Do not put the LORD your God to the test..." (Deut. 6:16/Matthew 4:7).  Samson's strength had nothing to do with his hair specifically, but the LORD was not going to let Samson play with sin using the strength that he was given to defeat the Philistines as foreplay with someone he was going to commit adultery with.  The LORD left him in the power of his own flesh and he was completely powerless against the Philistines that were there to come upon him.

The Philistines did capture him, but him in bronze shackles, gouged his eyes out to make him blind, and they bound him to a mill to make him grind grain into flour (work that would normally be done by an animal).  The text gives us hope though as it says that throughout his time of enslavement, his hair started to grow back which probably again is less about his actual hair and more about the fact that he had time to think about everything and repent and realize that he needed to be wholly devoted to the LORD.  We'll see in our next section that he is accepts his identity as the judge that is supposed to conquer the Philistines--not to intermarry with them--and he is even willing to give his life to the LORD to accomplish this purpose.  We'll talk about that next time.