What the Bible says about Samson and Delilah
Samson’s Weakness
16 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute there, and had relations with her.
2 When it was reported to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, “Let’s wait until the morning light, then we will kill him.”
3 Now Samson lay asleep until midnight, and at midnight he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.
4 After this it came about that he was in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 So the governors of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we can overpower him so that we may bind him to humble him. Then 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 can be bound to humble you.”
7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh animal tendons that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.”
8 Then the governors of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh animal tendons that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9 Now she had men prepared for an ambush in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he tore the tendons to pieces just like a thread of flax is torn apart when it comes too close to fire. So his strength was not discovered.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have toyed with me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound.”
11 Then he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will 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!” For the men in the ambush were waiting in the inner room. But he tore the ropes from his arms like thread.
13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have toyed with me and told me lies; tell me how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with the pin, then I will be weak like any other man.”
14 So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven locks of his hair with the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
Delilah Extracts His Secret
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.”
16 And it came about, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.
17 So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent word and called the governors of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the governors of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the money in their hands.
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Samson’s Demise (16:1 – 31)
Gaza (16:1). Whereas Samson’s previous experiences had happened at Timnah, on the northern edge of territory occupied by the Philistines, in 16:1 he is in Gaza, more than thirty miles southwest of Timnah. Gaza was the southernmost city of the Philistine Pentapolis, situated near the Mediterranean coast. While the fifteenth-century b.c. list of conquests by Thutmose III refers to Gaza as “a prize city of the governor,” in the twelfth century the Philistines took over the city.
Gaza
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Prostitute (16:1). On prostitution in ancient Israel and the surrounding peoples, see comment on 11:1.
Read more from Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the Old Testament
19 Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of them and took what they were wearing and gave the outfits of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.
14:19 stripped … of. The expression occurs elsewhere only in 2Sa 2:21, where it denotes the equipment stripped from a slain man, particularly the belt from which weapons and tools were hung. Carrying these items 20 miles (32 kilometers) back to Timnah in a mocking gesture, Samson presents them to the Philistine guards as their promised change of clothes. returned to his father’s home. Within the context of ancient Near Eastern marriage customs, the fact that Samson went home after the wedding was probably not unusual. In a cultural context where marriages were patrilocal, his new father-in-law could have interpreted his action as a return home to get the house in order. These periods of separation often lasted several months. Meanwhile, the wife continued to live at home, and the husband would visit her at more or less regular intervals, bringing gifts and enjoying a night of love. According to 15:1, Samson seems to think he can return to his wife at any time.
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21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and restrained him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison.
Gouged out his eyes (16:21). In subjecting Samson to this kind of punishment, the Philistines follow a common ancient Near Eastern custom. In Mesopotamia defeated enemies were often blinded by gouging out their eyes and then humiliated by being forced to perform the most menial of tasks, customarily assigned to slaves and women. Hittite sources report that captors blinded particularly dangerous captives to prevent them from taking up arms or trying to flee. Some, like the following letter from Kikarša to Taḫazzili, report that blinded hostages were forced to grind grain in the mill houses:
I hope all is well with my dear brother and that the gods are lovingly protecting you. Concerning the matter of the blind men that you wrote me about: they have conducted all of the blind men up to the city of Šapinuwa. They have left behind here ten men (to work) in the mill houses. I have inquired about them, and there is no one here by the name you wrote me. You should write to Mr. Šarpa in Šapinuwa. All the (other) blind men are there.
Obviously sight is not needed to grind grain. As in 9:52, the mill involved here would have been a smaller handmill, in contrast to larger mills turned by livestock.
Read more from Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the Old Testament