Judges 16:15-27

Delilah Extracts His Secret

15 Then she said to him, "¹How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is."

16 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 ²Nazirite 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 and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in 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 called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

20 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 ³the LORD had departed from him.

21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison *.

22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

23 Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to ⁴Dagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands."

24 When the people saw him, ⁵they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has given our enemy into our hands, Even the destroyer of our country, Who has slain many of us."

25 It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may amuse us." So they called for Samson from the prison *, and he entertained * them. And they made him stand between the pillars.

26 Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, "Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them."

27 Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 * men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

Judges 16:15-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 16

In this chapter we have an account of Samson's too great familiarity with two harlots; by the one he was brought into great danger, and narrowly escaped, Jud 16:1-3, and by the other he was betrayed into the hands of the Philistines, having got the secret out of him wherein his great strength lay, Jud 16:4-20 who having him in their hands, put out his eyes, imprisoned him, and in their idol temple made sport of him, Jud 16:21-25, where praying for renewed strength from the Lord, he pulled down the temple, and destroyed multitudes with the loss of his own life, Jud 16:26-31.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 14:16
• 2. Numbers 6:2, 5; Judges 13:5
• 3. Numbers 14:42, 43; Joshua 7:12; 1 Samuel 16:14
• 4. 1 Samuel 5:2
• 5. 1 Samuel 31:9; 1 Chronicles 10:9; Psalms 97:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "impatient to the point of"
• [b]. Lit "head"
• [c]. Lit "their heart was pleasant"
• [d]. Lit "made sport before them"