Judges 16:16

16 And it came to pass as she pressed him sore with her words continually, and straitened him, that his spirit failed almost to death.

Judges 16:16 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 16:16

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her
words, and urged him
Lay at him day after day to communicate the secret to him, gave him no rest, but was incessant in her applications to him:

so that his soul was vexed unto death:
could hardly bear to live, but wished to die, being in the utmost perplexity what to do between two different passions, love and fear; on the one hand chained by his lust to this harlot, that was continually teasing him, and whom he had not an heart to leave, or otherwise that would have cleared him of his difficulties; and on the other hand, should he disclose the secret, he feared, and was in danger of losing his strength, in which his glory lay: or

``his soul was shortened unto death'' ^F3;

it was the means of shortening his days, and hastening his death. Abarbinel thinks that Samson was sensible of this, that his days were short, and the time of his death at hand; which made him the more willing to impart the secret. This may put in mind of the story of Milo, a man famous for his great strength, said to carry an ox upon his shoulders a furlong without breathing; of whom it is reported, that none of his adversaries could deliver themselves out of his hands, but his whore could, often contending with him; hence it is observed of him, that he was strong in body, but not of a manly soul {d}; and there are many other things said ^F5 of him concerning his great strength, which seem to be taken from this history of Samson.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (ruqt) "abbreviata est", Montanus, Drusius. So Munster.
F4 Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 24.
F5 Vid. Pausan. Eliac. 2. sive. l. 6. p. 309.

Judges 16:16 In-Context

14 And it came to pass when he was asleep, that Dalida took the seven locks of his head, and wove them with the web, and fastened them with the pin into the wall, and she said, The Philistines upon thee, Sampson: and he awoke out of his sleep, and carried away the pin of the web out of the wall.

15 And Dalida said to Sampson, How sayest thou, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? this third time thou hast deceived me, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength.

16 And it came to pass as she pressed him sore with her words continually, and straitened him, that his spirit failed almost to death.

17 Then he told her all his heart, and said to her, A razor has not come upon my head, because I have been a holy of God from my mother's womb; if then I should be shaven, my strength will depart from me, and I shall be weak, and I shall be as all men.

18 And Dalida saw that he told her all his heart, and she sent and called the princess of the Philistines, saying, Come up yet this once; for he has told me all his heart. And the chiefs of the Philistines went up to her, and brought the money in their hands.