It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”
Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.”
Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He broke the cords as a flax thread is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies. Now please tell me how you might be bound.”
He said to her, “If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.”
So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, then said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” The ambush was waiting in the inner room. He broke them off his arms like a thread.
Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the fabric on the loom.”
She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam and the fabric.
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 have not told me where your great strength lies.”
When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his soul was troubled to death. He told her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever 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 go from me and I will become weak, and be like any other man.”
When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 Or, plain.
Or, plain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–18 Jdg 16:4 And it came to pass afterward, that…
Jdg 16:4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name [was] Delilah.
Ver. 4. And it came to pass afterward.] Not long afterwards, but before he had soundly repented of his former faultiness; the orifice of his lust being not yet stopped. So Lot committed incest two nights together. But of Judah it is expressly noted that, coming to a sight of his sin with Tamar, he "knew her again no more." {Gen 38:26}
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In the valley of Sorek.] A pleasant place, full of vines and myrtles. To Samson it proved a valley of vanity.
Whose name was Delilah.] A fit name for a harlot, for it comes from Dalal, which signifieth to exhaust, or to impoverish. It is the property of such female sinners to exhaust the purse, drain the strength, dry up the credit, waste the all of the mightiest Samsons. The Rabbis make Delilah to have been his wife, and further say, that he taught her the law of Moses before he took her; but none of this is likely to be true.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 He loved a woman; either, first, With conjugal love,…
He loved a woman; either, first, With conjugal love, so as to marry her, as divers both Jews and Christians have thought. Or, secondly, With lustful love, as a harlot; which though not certain, because the phrase is here ambiguous, she being neither called a harlot, as she of Gaza was, Jdg 16:1, nor yet his wife, as she of Timnath was, Jdg 14:2,3,20, yet it may seem more probable; partly, because the dreadful punishment now inflicted upon Samson for this sin, whom God spared for the first offence, is an intimation that this sin was not inferior to the former; partly, because the confidence which the Philistine lords had in her, and their bold and frequent treating with her, and the whole course of her carriage towards Samson, show her to be a mercenary and perfidious harlot, and not a wife, whose affection and interest would have obliged her to better things; and partly, because Samson did not carry her home to his house, as husbands use to do their wives; but lodged in her house, as appears from the whole story.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv4, 18 The burnt child dreads the fire; yet Samson, that…
The burnt child dreads the fire; yet Samson, that has more than the strength of a man, in this comes short of the wisdom of a child; for, though he had been more than once brought into the highest degree of mischief and danger by the love of women and lusting after them, yet he would not take warning, but is here again taken in the same snare, and this third time pays for all. Solomon seems to refer especially to this story of Samson when, in his caution against uncleanness, he gives this account of a whorish woman (Pro 7:26), that she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her; and (Pro 6:26) that the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. This bad woman, that brought Samson to ruin, is here named Delilah, an infamous name, and fitly used to express the person, or thing, that by flattery or falsehood brings mischief and destruction on those to whom kindness is pretended. See here,
I. The affection Samson had for Delilah: he loved her, Jdg 16:4. Some think she was his wife, but then he would have had her home to his own house; others that he courted her to make her his wife; but there is too much reason to suspect that it was a sinful affection he had for her, and that he lived in uncleanness with her. Whether she was an Israelite or a Philistine is not certain. If an Israelite, which is scarcely probable, yet she had the heart of a Philistine.
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II. The interest which the lords of the Philistines made with her to betray Samson, Jdg 16:5. 1. That which they told her they designed was to humble him, or afflict him; they would promise not to do him any hurt, only they would disable him not to do them any. And so much conscience it should seem they made of this promise that even then, when he lay ever so much at their mercy, they would not kill him, no, not when the razor that cut his hair might sooner and more easily have cut his throat. 2. That which they desired, in order hereunto, was to know where his great strength lay, and by what means he might be bound. Perhaps they imagined he had some spell or charm which he carried about with him, by the force of which he did these great things, and doubted not but that, if they could get this from him, he would be manageable; and therefore, having had reason enough formerly to know which was his blind side, hoped to find out his riddle a second time by ploughing with his heifer. They engaged Delilah to get it out of him, telling her what a kindness it would be to them, and perhaps assuring her it should not be improved to any real mischief, either to him or her. 3. For this they bid high, promised to give her each of them 1100 pieces of silver, 5500 in all. So many shekels amounted to above 1000l. sterling; with this she was hired to betray one she pretended to love. See what horrid wickedness the love of money is the root of. Our blessed Saviour was thus betrayed by one whom he called friend, and with a kiss too, for filthy lucre. No marvel if those who are unchaste, as Delilah, be unjust; such as lose their honesty in one instance will in another.
III. The arts by which he put her off from time to time, and kept his own counsel a great while. She asked him where his great strength lay, and whether it were possible for him to be bound and afflicted (Jdg 16:6), pretending that she only desired he would satisfy her curiosity in that one thing, and that she thought it was impossible he should be bound otherwise than by her charms.
1. When she urged him very much, he told her, (1.) That he might be bound with seven green withs, Jdg 16:7. The experiment was tried (Jdg 16:8), but it would not do: he broke the withs as easily as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire, Jdg 16:9. (2.) When she still continued her importunity (Jdg 16:10) he told her that with two new ropes he might be so cramped and hampered that he might be as easily dealt with as any other man, Jdg 16:11. This experiment was tried too, but it failed: the new ropes broke from off his arm like a thread, Jdg 16:12. (3.) When she still pressed him to communicate the secret, and upbraided him with it as an unkindness that he had bantered her so long, he then told her that the weaving of the seven locks of his head would make a great alteration in him, Jdg 16:13. This came nearer the matter than any thing he had yet said, but it would not do: his strength appeared to be very much in his hair, when, upon the trial of this, purely by the strength of his hair, he carried away the pin of the beam and the web.
2. In the making of all these experiments, it is hard to say whether there appears more of Samson's weakness or Delilah's wickedness. (1.) Could any thing be more wicked than her restless and unreasonable importunity with him to discover a secret which she knew would endanger his life if ever it were lodged any where but in his own breast? What could be more base and disingenuous, more false and treacherous, than to lay his head in her lap, as one whom she loved, and at the same time to design the betraying of him to those by whom he was mortally hated? (2.) Could any thing be more weak than for him to continue a parley with one who, he so plainly saw, was aiming to do him a mischief, - that he should lend an ear so long to such an impudent request, that she might know how to do him a mischief, - that when he perceived liers in wait for him in the chamber, and that they were ready to apprehend him if they had been able, he did not immediately quit the chamber, with a resolution never to come into it any more, - nay, that he should again lay his head in that lap out of which he had been so often roused with that alarm, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson? One can hardly imagine a man so perfectly besotted, and void of all consideration, as Samson now was; but whoredom is one of those things that take away the heart. It is hard to say what Samson meant in suffering her to try so often whether she could weaken and afflict him; some think he did not certainly know himself where his strength lay, but, it should seem, he did know, for, when he told her that which would disable him indeed, it is said, He told her all his heart. It seems, he designed to banter her, and to try if he could turn it off with a jest, and to baffle the liers in wait, and make fools of them; but it was very unwise in him that he did not quit the field as soon as ever he perceived that he was not able to keep the ground.
IV. The disclosure he at last made of this great secret; and, if the disclosure proved fatal to him, he must thank himself, who had not power to keep his own counsel from one that manifestly sought his ruin. Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird, but in Samson's sight is the net spread, and yet he is taken in it. If he had not been blind before the Philistines put out his eyes, he might have seen himself betrayed. Delilah signifies a consumer; she was so to him. Observe, 1. How she teazed him, telling him she would not believe he loved her, unless he would gratify her in this matter (Jdg 16:15): How canst thou say, I love thee, when they heart is not with me? That is, "when thou canst not trust me with the counsels of they heart?" Passionate lovers cannot bear to have their love called in question; they would do any thing rather than their sincerity should be suspected. Here therefore Delilah had this fond fool (excuse me that I call him so) at an advantage. This expostulation is indeed grounded upon a great truth, that those only have our love, not that have our good words or our good wishes, but that have our hearts. That is love without dissimulation; but it is falsehood and flattery in the highest degree to say we love those with whom our hearts are not. How can we say we love either our brother, whom we have seen, or God, whom we have not seen, if our hearts be not with him? She continued many days vexatious to him with her importunity, so that he had no pleasure of his life with her (Jdg 16:16); why then did he not leave her? It was because he was captivated to her by the power of love, falsely so called, but truly lust. This bewitched and perfectly intoxicated him, and by the force of it see, 2. How she conquered him (Jdg 16:17): He told her all his heart. God left him to himself to do this foolish thing, to punish him for indulging himself in the lusts of uncleanness. The angel that foretold his birth said nothing of his great strength, but only that he should be a Nazarite, and particularly that no razor should come upon his head, Jdg 13:5. His consecration to God was to be his strength, for he was to be strengthened according to the glorious power of that Spirit which wrought in him mightily, that his strength, by promise, not by nature, might be a type and figure of the spiritual strength of believers, Col 1:11, Col 1:29. Therefore the badge of his consecration was the pledge of his strength; if he lose the former, he knows he forfeits the latter. "If I be shaven, I shall no longer be a Nazarite, and then my strength will be lost." The making of his bodily strength to depend so much on his hair, which could have no natural influence upon it either one way or other, teaches us to magnify divine institutions, and to expect God's grace, and the continuance of it, only the use of those means of grace wherein he has appointed us to attend upon him, the word, sacraments, and prayer. In these earthen vessels is this treasure.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–18 And it came to pass afterwards, that he loved…
And it came to pass afterwards, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek,.... Which, according to Adrichomius (y) was but half a mile from the brook Eshcol, from whence the spies brought a bunch of grapes, as a specimen of the fruit of the land of Canaan; and this valley of Sorek seems to have been famous for the best wine, and hither Samson retired for refreshment and pleasure; but, according to Jerom (z), it was on the north of Eleutheropolis, where, he says, was shown a village in his time called Capharsorech, near the village Zorah, from whence Samson was; and Bunting (a) makes it to be twelve miles from Hebron, and twelve from Jerusalem; where he met with a woman he loved; whether she was an Israelite, or one of the daughters of the Philistines, they now being the rulers of Israel, is not said; most likely the latter, as say Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, since the lords of the Philistines were so intimate with her, and were entertained in her house, and she showed more respect to them than to Samson. The Jews say she became a proselyte, but if she did, there is very little evidence of her being a sincere one: some have thought, that the courtship to her was a lawful conjugal love; that falling in love with her, he courted and married her; but this is not very likely, since no mention is made of his marriage to her, nor did he take her home, but dwelt in her house: it rather seems to be an impure and unlawful love he had to her, and that she was an harlot, as Josephus (b); and all her conduct and behaviour confirm the same:
whose name was Delilah; the Jews say (c) she was so called because she weakened the heart and spirit of Samson, and weakened his strength, and weakened his works; and therefore, if this had not been her name, they say it was one very proper for her.
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(y) Ut supra, (Theatrum Terra Sanct.) p. 24. (z) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. L. (a) Travels, p. 116, 117. (b) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8.) sect. 11. (c) T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 9. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 Loved - Probably as an harlot: because the dreadful…
Loved - Probably as an harlot: because the dreadful punishment now inflicted upon Samson for this sin, whom God spared for the first offense, is an intimation, that this sin was not inferior to the former.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17 Verse 4. He loved a woman in the valley…
Verse 4. He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek] Some think Samson took this woman for his wife; others, that he had her as a concubine. It appears she was a Philistine; and however strong his love was for her, she seems to have had none for him. He always matched improperly, and he was cursed in all his matches. Where the valley or brook of Sorek was, is not easy to be ascertained. Eusebius and Jerome say it lay southward of Eleutheropolis; but where was Eleutheropolis? Ancient writers take all their measurements from this city; but as it is nowhere mentioned in the Scriptures, it is impossible to fix its situation for we know not its ancient name.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 Jdg 16:4. He loved a woman in the valley…
Jdg 16:4. He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek — Through which passed the river of the same name. This place, famous for its vines, was about a mile and a half from Eshcol, whence the spies brought their bunch of grapes. Here Samson met with Delilah, who, whether she was a Jewess or a Philistine, was probably a harlot, and not, as Chrysostom and some others have asserted, a woman of reputation married by Samson; because the dreadful punishment now inflicted upon him for his intercourse with her, after God had spared him for the first offence, certainly manifests that this sin was not inferior to the former.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 11, 14 A village to the north of Eleutheropolis, called Caphar-Sotek,…
A village to the north of Eleutheropolis, called Caphar-Sotek, was still existing in the time of Eusebius, near Zorah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17, 18 After this. The lamentable fall of Samson took place…
After this. The lamentable fall of Samson took place in the last year of his administration, when Heli, of the house of Thamar, succeeded Achitob I. in the high priesthood. (In the year before Christ 1154. Salien) --- Sorec was not far from Saraa, where Samson was born. It probably belonged to the Philistines, as Dalila is generally supposed to have been of that nation, and most people believe a harlot. (Calmet) --- Adrichomius says the eunuch was here baptized. (Tirinus) --- Dalila. Some are of opinion she was married to Samson; others that she was his harlot. If the latter opinion be true, we cannot wonder that, in punishment of his lust, the Lord delivered him up by her means into the hands of his enemies. However, if he was guilty, it is not to be doubted, but that under his afflictions, he heartily repented and returned to God, and so obtained forgiveness of his sins. (Challoner) --- Dolol means, "to be impoverished or weakened," as Samson was in all respects by this wicked woman.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v4 Samson’s fall. He loves a Philistine woman, and, confiding…
Samson’s fall. He loves a Philistine woman, and, confiding to her the secret of his strength, is betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
Jdg_16:4-20.
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4And it came to pass afterward [after this], that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5And the lords [princes] of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice [Persuade] him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict [lit. humble, i. e., subdue] him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silJudges Jdg_16:6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict [subdue] thee. 7And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs [moist cords],6 that were never [have not been] dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another 8[any other] man. Then the lords [princes] of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs [moist cords], which had not been dried, and she bound him 9with them. (Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber.)7 And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs [cords] as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth [smelleth] the fire. his strength was not known. 10And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked [deceived] me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. 11And he said unto her, If they bind me fast [omit: fast] with new ropes that never were occupied [with which no work was ever done], then shall I be weak, and be as another [any other] Man_1:12Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. (And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber.)2 And he brake them from off his arms like a thread. 13And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked [deceived] me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. 14And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with [i. e., into] the web [i. e., the warp]. And [she did so, and] she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with [pulled out] the pin of the beam [loom], and with [omit: with] the web [or, warp]. 15And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked [deceived] me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. 16And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; 17That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been [am] a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, 18and be like any [all] other man [men]. And when [omit: when] Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, [and] she sent and called for the lords [princes] of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me8 all his heart. Then the lords [princes] of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought [the] money in their hand. 19And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave [and she shaved]9 off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict [subdue] him, and his strength went from him. 20And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself [free].10 And he wist not that the Lord [Jehovah] was departed from him.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Jdg_16:7.—יְתָרִים לַחִים: literally, “moist cords or strings.” Keil: “יֶתֶר means string, e. g., of a bow, Psa_11:2, and in Arabic and Syriac both bow-string and guitar-string. Now since the יְתָרִים are here distinguished from the עֲבֹתִים, ropes (Jdg_16:11). the former must be understood of animal tendons or gut-strings.” It is certainly in favor of this view that the יְתָרִים are to be “moist,” as also that it makes a strong and climactic distinction between וְתָרִים and עֲבֹתִים. Compare the rendering of the LXX.: νευραῖς ῦγραῖς.—Tr.]
[2 Jdg_16:9.—וְהָאִרֵב ישֵׁב לָהּ בָּחֶדֶר: “and the lurker sat for her in the apartment.” In itself considered, אֹרֵב might be collective, as rendered by the E. V. (cf. Jdg_20:33); but, although other Philistines may have been near at hand, it would be difficult to conceal the presence in the room itself of more than one, and hence it would hardly be attempted, לָהּ is dat. commodi. The rendering, “with her,” adopted also by Cassel (and De Wette), is not indeed impossible, but gives to לְ a meaning which it rarely has, and which is here less suitable.—Tr.]
[3 Jdg_16:18.—The reading לִי of the keri is evidently the correct one, notwithstanding Keil’s remarks in favor of לָהּ. Keil would make the clause a remark inserted by the narrator: “for he had showed her (לָהּ) all his heart.”—Tr.]
[4 Jdg_16:19.—וַתְּגַלַּח: “and she shaved.” The piel is not causative here; compare the pual in Jdg_16:17. The E. V. seems to accept the interpretation of the Vulgate and Alex. Sept., which translate לָאִישׁ by “barber.” “The man” (לְהָאִישׁ = לָאִיּשׁ) is probably the Philistine who was on duty at the time as “lurker;” and Delilah calls on him, in order to have somebody near to defend her should Samson wake during the shearing process. Cf. Keil.—Tr.]
[5 Jdg_16:20.—אִנָּעֵר: Dr. Cassel translates, will mich ermannen, “put on and assert my manhood.” He supposes Samson to see the Philistines, and to express his determination to give them battle as heretofore (see below). But not to say that נִנְעַר will not bear this sense, it seems clear that the “other times” refer to the previous attempts of Delilah to master his secret.—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg_16:4. And it came to pass that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. Let him who stands, take heed lest he fall. This is valid also for the powerful personality of Samson. It is true that the adventures, in which sensuality ensnared him, had hitherto been only occasions for acting as the hero of his people. But it is true also that his present love differs in many respects from that which he gave to the woman of Timnah. Then he was young, and for his people’s sake needed natural occasions for war against the Philistines—to say nothing of the fact that at that time he sought lawful matrimony. Now, he has long been a man. His strength and greatness need no more demonstration. Delilah was not his wife: if not a “zonah,” she was still but a weaver-woman, whom he saw and loved. Moral dangers, like all dangers, may, in the providence of God, serve to give experience to a man, and afford him opportunities for victory; but to run into them, in the confidence of winning new victories, is not permitted, even to a Samson. The “Nazir of Elohim” is not to be measured by common rules: everything is lawful for him; but only so long as he does not desecrate by means of itself the strength with which he is endowed.
By giving the name of the place where, and of the woman whom, Samson loved, the narrator already foreshadows the temptation into which he placed himself. The Nachal (Valley of) Sorek is evidently named after a variety of the grape—in appearance almost stoneless, yet provided with a soft stone, and productive of a precious red wine (cf. Jer_2:21; Isa_5:2)—which elsewhere gives the name Kischmi to an Arabian island (Ritter, xii. 452). Of the position of the Nachal Sorek we have no other tradition than that of Eusebius, who knew a place named Sorech (al. l. Barech), north of Eleutheropolis, in the vicinity of Zorah, the home of Samson. But this tradition can scarcely be accepted. For the place, judging from the connection of the narrative, cannot have been remote from Gaza (cf. Jdg_16:21). Nay, even the immediate connection of our narrative with the previous occurrence in Gaza, points to the vicinity of the latter city. Moreover, it is to be supposed that precisely in the region indicated by Eusebius, all Philistine supremacy was abrogated by the growing fear of Samson’s activity as Judge. Nor is it difficult to see that the tradition followed by Eusebius, connects itself with the exegesis of Jdg_13:25. It will therefore be an allowable conjecture, to assume as the theatre of the sad catastrophe which is now related, the present wretched village Simsim, whence the Wâdy (Nachal) Simsim, passed by the traveller on the way from Gaza to Ashkelon, where it debouches, derives its name (Ritter, vi. 68). It is remarkable that another, albeit in this respect erroneous tradition, led astray by the name Askulân, Ashkelon, has identified this wâdy with the brook Eshcol, which must indeed be sought near Hebron, but which likewise derived its name from the grapes of that region.
The name of the woman would not have been given by the narrator, had he not wished to intimate the same idea which R. Mair expressed (Sota, 9, 2; Jalkut, n. 70),11 when he remarked, that even if Delilah had not been her name, she might nevertheless properly be so called, because את כוהו דילדלה, “she debilitated his strength.” The form דלדל (from Chaldee דלל) has clearly also given rise to the name Δαλιδά, which is given to Delilah in the Septuagint and in many MSS. of Josephus, and which is therefore probably not a false reading. We meet also with a Greek female name Δαλίς, δαλίδος. The name Delilah reminds us readily of the onomatopoetic German word ein-lullen [English, to lull asleep], Greek βαυκαλάω (whence a proper name Βαύκαλος). Sensuality sings and lulls the manly strength of the hero to sleep. The voluptuous chiefs12 of the Philistines know this full well, and therefore they say:
Jdg_16:5. Persuade him, and see wherein his great strength lieth. Samson was no giant, coarse and elephantine, like a Cyclops; otherwise, they would have been at no loss to explain his strength. The shoulders on which he bore the gate-doors of Gaza were not sixty ells apart, as in the figurative expression of the Talmud. He was regularly built, although we may conceive of him as tall and stately; full of spirit, yet good-natured and kind, as the possessor of true divine genius always is.
But on this very account, because physically he did seem very different from themselves, and as they knew not the power of divine inspiration, they entertained the wide-spread superstition, still current in the East, that he had some occult means at his service, from which he derived his unusual strength. The expressions for amulets and charms for such and similar purposes, are still very numerous in the Persian and Arabic idioms. Rustem, according to the Iranian legend, could not have overcome Isfendiar, if he had not previously learned the charm which gave the latter his strength. Scandinavian mythology, also, puts Thor in possession of his highest strength, only when he puts on the girdle which assures it to him. Even in Germany, the superstition was prevalent until comparatively recent times, that persons had sometimes become “fearfully strong” through the use of demoniac flesh (Meier, Schwäb. Sagen, p. 111). In the year 1718 a person confessed that the devil had given him a receipt, in the possession of which he felt himself stronger than all other men (cf. Tharsander, Schauplatz unger. Meinungen, ii. 514 f.).
It was all important for the Philistines to learn Samson’s charm, in order to render it powerless. They hear of his love for Delilah. They were aware that before this the hero had failed to withstand the cajoleries of the woman he loved. In both earlier and later times, the orientals were conversant with the dangers which often arise to even the greatest heroes and kings, from their weakness toward women. Tradition and poetry are full of it. In the apocryphal Esdras (I. Esdras 4:26 f.) we read: “Many have gone out of their wits for women, and have become slaves on account of them. Many have perished, and erred, and sinned, by reason of women.” And the Turkish poet Hamdi says: “Brother, if thou comest to women, do not trust them. Women have deceived even prophets.” Though this be true, all women are not thereby defamed. Traitors like Delilah are only those who are such as she was, just as the only lovers of treason are cowardly men, like the Philistines, who dare not meet greatness openly.
And we will give thee eleven hundred pieces of silver each. It is a very mean trade that is here driven with the affections of Samson. It is an instance so deterrent, that it might well move deeply and instruct both young and old. The woman of Timnah betrayed Samson either from fear or from Philistine zeal: this one sells him for money; and the Philistines with whom she trades are very careful in making their promises. It is not enough, they stipulate, that she ascertains the secret; it must be such that use can be made of it, and that with the particular specified result. This carefulness shows that the cold-blooded Philistines knew with whom they had to do. So much the sadder is it to see Samson lavish caresses on such a woman. The sum for which Delilah consents to sell the hero is not insignificant. Since each of the princes promises 1,100 shekels of silver, and since, according to Jdg_3:3, the number of princes may be set down as five, the sum pledged amounted to 5,500 shekels, between 4,500 and 5,000 [Prussian] Reichsthaler [i. e., between 3,000 and 3,500 dollars].13—Had Curius, the Roman, been less niggardly towards Fulvia, his scortum, the Catilinian conspiracy might perhaps have been more successful (Sallust, Catilina, 23).
Jdg_16:6-9. If they bind me with seven fresh cords. Delilah accepts the offers held out by treason, and begins to insinuate herself into Samson’s favor14 by inquiries about his strength. But Samson does not tell her the truth. Why not? Because from that moment he would have beer obliged to have nothing more to do with her. For her questions reminded him of the divine origin of his strength, which was not given for such a house, and which after a true answer could no longer be secure there. As soon as he told the truth, he must either depart or perish, separate from his charmer or suffer. The mediæval poetry in which heroes of superior origin live peaceably with women, but are obliged to separate from them as soon as these begin to inquire after their descent, represents the same thought in poetical garb. The wife’s questions, however, in these fictions, are not put with treasonable intent. They nevertheless drive the man away (cf. my work: Der Schwan, p. 21, etc.).
Want of confidence and national fellowship15 do not permit Samson to give the true answer to Delilah. But if these be wanting, how can he consort with her, even leaving her questions out of view? That this is not impossible, is but too plain; but the explanation of it is unpleasing. Samson, in his sensual sports, lays no claims to morality, and the heroism, in which he feels himself secure, sleeps under the pleasing sensations of the play. He would continue to divert himself, and therefore prefers not to tell the truth. In the “seven cords,” however, he already hints at the “seven locks” of his head. Here is the germ of his fall. He seeks to quiet Delilah by some sort of answer. Seven cords of animal tendons, not yet stretched (cf. Saalschütz, Archäologie, i. 141, note 8), are undoubtedly sufficient to render a strong man incapable of defending himself. It was an answer which Delilah might reasonably believe, while for himself it contained no danger; for who will put the cords on him, except by his own permission? Even when at a subsequent visit Delilah had the cords in readiness, and coaxed him to allow her to bind him with them, he could still consent to be passive. Had the Philistines actually attacked him, it would but have afforded him a desirable opportunity for an heroic feat. But the Philistines are careful, and keep at a distance until they see how the trial will end. When Delilah raises the cry of Philistines, Samson rends the cords asunder as so many threads of tow. He gave a proof of his strength, but gained no victory.
That which the principle of evil here attempts against the hero, Scandinavian mythology, in the Edda, represents inversely. The “Ases” (demigods) are afraid of the “Wolf” (the representative of evil). They persuade him to allow himself to be bound, in order to show his strength. He tears asunder one chain after another, until he is bound by means of a singular cord, whose symbolical sense makes it the same as that under which Samson succumbs: for it is the cord of sensuality.—It is a distorted form of our narrative which we find in the Slavic story of the strong son, who rends the rope in pieces, but succumbs under the thin string, which cuts into his flesh.
Jdg_16:10-12. If they bind me with new ropes with which no work was ever done. Samson’s contempt of the Philistines is so great, that he does not even become angry with Delilah, whose behavior nevertheless could not but appear suspicious to him. And she knows her power over him so well, that, after the ancient manner of women, she seeks to escape the reproaches which he might be expected to make against her, by anticipating them with her own against him. And that with all the brazen effrontery characteristic of women whose charms are great and whose hearts are bad. “I saw Apame,” it is said in the apocryphal Esdras (I. Esdras 4:29 ff.), “taking the crown from the king’s head, and striking him. If she laughs upon him, he laughs; if she is angry at him, he flatters her, that she may be reconciled to him.” Delilah, with treason in her heart, dares to tax Samson with falsehood. But she uses this feigned sensitiveness and her crocodile tears to renew her attempts to gain his secret and her reward. Still he does not tell her the truth; but yet she makes an advance towards her end. It could not be otherwise. For although Samson’s greatness only jests, it is nevertheless true that his godlike strength was not given for sport. The playfully received reproach that he had told her lies, drives him involuntarily a step nearer the truth which her demand profanes. Satan already draws his snares one stitch closer. For when he tells her that he can be bound by new cords “with which no work has been done,” the added qualification is not an empty and meaningless one. He was already once bound with “new cords” (Jdg_15:13), and set himself free. But the cords “with which no work has yet been done,” are an image of his strength; the hair of his head also is unprofaned—no razor has ever touched it. Strength and consecration were characteristic of the things yet uncontaminated by the uses and defilements of life. The vehicle on which the ark of God is transported must be drawn by animals never before yoked, and must itself be new. The Philistine diviners (1Sa_6:7) know this; the law of Israel also recognizes the principle, in its requirement that the red heifer of purification shall be one upon whom yoke never came16 (Num_19:2). Availing himself of this belief, Samson speaks of “new cords, which have never done service,” in order by this suggestion of special strength in them, to make his answer more credible, while it at the same time gives a reflection of the truth with regard to himself.
But the treason does not yet succeed. The Philistine spy, who is present but concealed (בֶּחָדֶר, in the inner apartment), must for the second time depart, disappointed and gloomy. The cords fall from his arms like threads. It was for him but a pleasant pastime thus to give Delilah one more proof of his strength, hoping perhaps to deter her from further questioning. If he did believe this, it could only be in consequence of his magnificent confidence, which in the consciousness of strength verged toward weakness. But natures like Delilah’s do not relax: avarice and vexation urge them on. In the Old-French romance of Merlin, that wise man says that such women are, “hameçonsa prendre poissons enrivière, reths a prendre les oiseaulx a lapipée, rasouers tranchans et affilez.”
Jdg_16:13-14. If thou weavest the seven locks of my head into the web. He still conceals the truth; but also once more yields a step. The untruth constantly diminishes, the danger constantly increases. He thinks no longer of actual ropes; he speaks already of the locks of his head. Formerly, he hinted at them, under the figure of that which is untouched of labor, but named cords; now he names his hair, but does not yet speak of its untouched consecration. So organically does his own noble nature press him onward into the snares set for him by the reproaches and tears of the traitoress. As soon as he determined either to tell the truth, or not to tell it, he must break with the traitorous tempter, and part from her; and if he does not do this, it is precisely his ordinary, noble impulse toward truth, which even in jest and in the face of treason he cannot deny, that drives him on to destruction.
Expositors find the answer of Samson very difficult to be understood, but needlessly. Delilah had in her apartment a weaver’s loom, at which she worked. It was doubtless of the upright, primitive form. It is probable that the technical terms connected with the weaver’s art in Egypt were also prevalent on the Phœnician coast. Weaving women have also been found depicted on Egyptian monuments. The word מַסֶּכֶת signifies the web on the loom. Hesychius (cf. Schleusner, Thes. iii. 529) has a form μέσακνον, which is explained to mean “weaver’s-beam.” It is then added: “Some make it mean ἀντίον, others μεσάκτων.” The latter word is manifestly מַסֶּכֶת, and the same as μεσάντων, which only the LXX. know, and is certainly not Greek, although ἀντίον occurs elsewhere. The Targum represents it by מַשְׁתֵּיתָא, which is evidently derived from the same technical expression. Delilah is to work the hair of Samson, who places himself near the loom, into her web as woof. This could only be done from above. Herodotus (ii. 35) informs us, that the Egyptians, unlike other nations, inserted the woof, not from below upward, but from above downward. Samson’s locks were long enough to form a close and perfect web; for it is added that she also struck in the יָתֵד, the batten, in order to show that it was a regular piece of weaving.יָתֵד is what Homer calls the κερκίς, staff, equivalent to our “batten.” The Greek κερκίς, also, means a pin, nail, just as the Hebrew יָתֵד does elsewhere. During the weaving, Samson had fallen asleep. Had he been unable to extricate his hair, he would at least have been unfree in his movements. But at the cry “Philistines!” he awakes. He gives one wrench, and the web tears, the batten shoots out, and the seven locks are free. They are called מִחְלָפוֹת, a word found only here. It comes from חָלַף, not, however, from that which means “to change,” but from the equivalent of πλέκω, with which, consonant changes being taken into account, it is identical (פלך = פלח = חלף = πλέκω). The πλόκαμοι, locks, are seven, in accordance with the sacred number of perfection and consecration. Delilah finds herself deceived for the third time. The Philistines become impatient and dubious. No mention is made this third time of a spy, awaiting the issue of the trial. Even the second time, it is not stated, as at the first attempt, that the Philistines brought her the cords. The woman sees herself defrauded of her large gains, and turned into a laughing-stock besides. She therefore brings everything to bear to overcome the hero. She employs all her arts to torment him. He does not love her—has no heart for her—has deceived her: such is the gamut on which her tears and prayers are pitched. In point of fact, the three-fold reproach is a threefold injustice. The three answers he has given, looked at carefully, form as it were an enigma, in which the truth lies concealed: in the first, the “seven;” in the second, the “consecration;” in the third, the “locks.” He is really too great to lie; and therefore he falls a victim. Had he only lied thoroughly, lied once more, he had been free. The Philistines would not have returned; Delilah would have ceased. But Samson’s history is a finished tragedy. He falls by reason of his greatness, which hinders him from avoiding the thrust of the serpent whom he has once suffered to approach his heel.
Samson’s pliableness has met with sufficiently frivolous apprehension. “Strong Samson,” says Rousseau (Emile, ed. 1782, iii. p. 200), “was not so strong as Delilah.” This is erroneous. It was because he was so strong and Delilah so weak, that he fell. He stumbled over an opponent who was too little to contend with. Rousseau compares him with Hercules in his relations to Omphale. This also is incorrect. That myth is nothing but a representation of the sun, who as hero descends into the lap of repose. It has no dramatico-historical interest. Omphale makes no demand of anything with which the prosperity and freedom of a nation are connected. Nor is it more correct to look for analogies among the tasks which, in tradition and poetry, are imposed on lover-heroes by their mistresses. Those are mere trials of strength, without moral character. The historian of the Incas says, panegyrically, of Huayna Capac, one of the last monarchs of Peru (died 1525), that “he was never known to refuse a woman, of whatever age or degree she might be, any favor that she asked of him” (Prescott, Peru, i. 339, note). Samson had certainly refused Delilah, had he not been so great in his strength, so unique in his manifestation, so elevated above his time, so true even in evasion, so earnest in sport. The weakness of Pericles for Aspasia, even if not without influence on affairs of state, was not dramatic—for they mutually valued each other; but Samson’s love is tragic, because the play in which in his greatness he indulges, causes his feet to slide on account of it.
Jdg_16:15-16. And his soul was vexed unto death. If Samson remained, he must succumb. The national hero of Israel who cannot separate himself from a Philistine woman, must fall. In vain has he sought three times to put her off with a jest. The avarice and knavery of such women are not to be escaped from by witty turns. She knows that at last he cannot hide the truth from her. Precisely his greatness and fearlessness enable her to compass his destruction. He remains; and she does not cease her efforts, until at last he is wearied of her ceaseless teazing (וַתְּאַלֲצהוּ).17 She bored him to death (וַתִּקְצַר וַפִשׂוֹ) with tears and reproaches. He wished to have rest—and to remain; nothing was left, therefore, but to grant her wish. Such is the philosophy of many husbands who yield to women ambitious of rule. To be sure, they are their wives, before God and men, and the danger is not always so great as here. Samson, although he remains, finds himself so plagued, that in order to quiet Delilah, everything else is indifferent to him. He determines to tell her the true reason of his great strength. But will she not wish to test the truth of what he tells her? and will he not thereby lose his strength? He considers it not. But this strength which he puts in jeopardy, it is not his own possession? He does not reflect. It was given him for the freedom of his people against the Philistines. But he will tell her the truth, come what may, in order to have peace. Delilah had doubtless promised him not to abuse his secret. He believes her promise, if only he can silence her. He was wearied to death, so that his courage, the freshness of his mind, and his passion for victory were benumbed—and all that, when one step out of her house would have set him free! Abstinence unfolded his strength: Delilah in the Wine-Valley (Nachal Sorek) put it to sleep.18 When he killed lions, he was full of happiness and relish for life: now, he is wearied unto death. In Timnah, his wife betrays him, and affords him an opportunity for a glorious victory: now, he betrays himself, and falls.
Jdg_16:17. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me. Expositors, from the earliest ages down, have here made mention of the Greek myth of king Nisus of Megara, and have even regarded it as a disfigurement of what is stated here. But on closer inspection of the sources whence we derive our knowledge of the Greek myth, the greater part of the analogy which it seems to offer with our narrative falls away, and the idea from which it springs is seen to be very different. It is nowhere stated that Nisus would lose his dominion if his hair were shaved off; but only that on his gray head there grew a single purple hair, with which his fortune was connected (Apollod. xv. Judges 2 : πορφυρέαν ἐν μεσῃ τῇ κεφαλῇ τρίχα; cf. Ovid, Metam. viii. Judges 8 : “Splendidus (crinis) ostro inter honoratos medio de vertice canos.”)19 It is true that his daughter betrayed him; but that was not his fault. Not he, but his daughter, was blinded by sensual love for the enemy. The principal idea, the weakness of Samson himself, is wholly unrepresented. Why only the purple hair contained this fiducia magni regni, we are not informed. But it must probably be explained by the assumption of some connection with the purple light of the Sun, and the vast knowledge which that deity was supposed to possess—thus making it a pledge of wisdom rather than strength; for Nisus was no Hercules. This view is corroborated by the different turn given to the idea in popular traditions. For just as Christianity portrayed the devil as one who arrogates the power and appearance of the light, and presents himself as an angel of light, so popular conceptions have represented him with a cock’s feather, as the symbol of light, and from a kindred point of view, have invented the charm of “golden devil’s-hairs” to attain to universal knowledge (cf. my Eddischen Studien, p. 86). In all this there is no resemblance to the life-like, historical picture here drawn of Samson. Still, it cannot be denied that the Biblical narrative has apparently furnished the basis of many superstitious distortions, however coarse most of them may be. Among these the case of Apollonius of Tyana, whom Domitian caused to be shaved, is not to be reckoned, however; for that was probably only designed to inflict dishonor. But it is not delusive to find one of them in the opinion that magicians and witches were insensible to torture, until the hair had been shaven from the whole body—an opinion which led to many detestable proceedings, but was also speedily condemned by many (cf. Martin Delrio, Disquis. Magicœ, lib. v. § 9, pp. 764 f., ed. Cöln. 1679; Paulini (1709), Philosoph. Luststunden, ii. 169; Schedius, De Diis Germanis (1728), p. 388).
Jdg_16:18. And Delilah, saw that he had told her all his heart. Old Jewish expositors say that she knew this because “words of truth are readily recognizable,” and because she felt sure that he would not “take the name of God in vain.” She followed up her discovery with proceedings sufficiently satanical. She at once sent to the Philistine chiefs to request them to visit her once more. This time he had undoubtedly opened his heart to her. She did not, however, intoxicate him, and proceed to her work, before they came. They must first bring the money with them. As for them, they soon made their appearance, and, concealed from Samson, awaited her call.
Jdg_16:19. And his strength went from him. As soon as the seven locks of his head had fallen, he ceased to possess the superhuman strength which had hitherto resided in him. But in the beginning of his history, in the annunciation of his birth and character to his parents, it is not intimated that by reason of the hair which no razor was to touch, he should possess such strength. Nor is it anywhere mentioned that Samson, the child, was already in possession of this giant strength, as soon as his hair had grown long. On the contrary, it is said, “And Jehovah blessed him.” Had it been his long hair that made him so strong, there would have been no necessity for the Spirit of Jehovah to “come upon him,” when he was about to perform some great deed for which the occasion presented itself. What sort of strength his long locks, as such, could give him, is clearly seen when nothing but God’s intervening help saves him from perishing through thirst. The growth of the unshaven hair on the head of a Nazarite, was only a token of his consecration, not the consecration itself. Similarly, the seven locks of Samson were only the sign of his strength, not the strength itself.20 The strength of Samson depended, not on the external locks, but on the consecration of which they were the symbol. Hence, he needed God’s help and Spirit, and received his strength not because of his long hair, but because of his vocation.21 For God’s nearness is granted not to all whose hair is long, but only to those devoted to his service. But just as in Israel he ceased to be a Nazarite who shaved his hair, so Samson’s consecration departed from him when he removed its sign. When he failed to withstand Delilah, he surrendered not so much his hair, as his divine consecration. He denies his election to be a “Nazir of God,” when he gives his hair to profanation. His consecration was broken, for he voluntarily allowed it to be profaned by the hands of the Philistine woman; his courage was broken, for he had done what he would not do; his joyousness was broken, when he yielded with half his heart, wearied, and in conflict with himself; his conscience was broken, and would not be drowned in the intoxication of Sorek-grapes; his manhood is broken, for he is no longer a whole man who, in a waking dream, betrays the sanctuary and glory of his life to the enemy: in a word, his strength is broken; and of all this, his fallen locks are not the cause, but the sign. The departure of his strength is not an externally caused, but an inwardly grounded moral result. Virgil says (Æneid, iv. 705) that the real life flame (calor) of the deceased Dido ceased to exist only with the severing of the hair from her head. This idea, raised into the sphere of moral truth, applies to Samson. His long hair was no amulet, conditioning the enjoyment of the Spirit of God—for without it the Spirit rested on Gideon and Jephthah, filling them with heroic virtue; but when, with a restless heart, he consciously threw himself and his people, for wine and love, into the power of the harlot, he became a broken hero. Since he himself says, and fully believes, that his strength is in his hair, and nevertheless gives himself up, it is evident that a breach has opened between his passions and his reason; and this breach made him a broken man. This moral rupture distinguishes Samson’s fall from similar histories. The legend concerning Sheikh Shehabeddin, in the “Forty Viziers” (ed. Behrnauer, p. 25) is in many respects shaped after the catastrophe of Samson; but the arts by which he escapes from the Sultan who persecutes him, are those of magic. When a woman finally persuades him to betray his secret, it turns out that it consists only in certain external washings. All moral interest is wanting, both in the attack and in the defense. The Siegfried legend in the Nibelungen is more beautiful. The wounded part of the hero is also entirely external; but its betrayal is wrought by love, not by malice. Chriemhild, from love to her husband, becomes the discloser of his weakness, which a man betrays. In Slavic (cf. Wenzig, p. 190) and North German legends (cf. Müllenhoff, p. 406) magicians and strong persons do not carry their hearts about with them, but keep them wonderfully concealed. It is only by women’s arts that opponents ascertain where it is. The primitive, moral ideas contained in these legends, are disfigured under the wrappings of childish distortions.
Jdg_16:20. And she said, The Philistines are upon thee! In previous trials, cords and weaver’s loom had shown Delilah and her confederates the unimpaired condition of Samson’s strength. This time, rendered confident by Delilah’s word, the Philistine chiefs are themselves present. Samson rises, reeling, from sleep, sees the thick crowd, and, thinking that everything is as formerly, says: “I will go out to battle as at other times!” He suits the action to the word—but—
He wist not that Jehovah was departed from him. Appropriately does the narrator substitute “Jehovah” here for “strength,” thus confirming what has been remarked above. The Spirit of strength, consecration to God, integrity of soul, the fullness of enthusiasm, the joyousness of the unbroken heart, were no longer his. This is already apparent from the fact that he did not know that God had left him. Whoever has God, knows it; whomsoever He has left, knows it not. When he was near his end, he could pray; but now, in his state of semi-intoxication and intellectual obscuration, he can neither fight as formerly, nor call on God, and so—he falls.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Samson was a Nazarite. He bore the sign of the general priesthood. The consecration of God was upon his head. It fired his will, gave his strength, and guided his error into the way of salvation. But when he profaned it, and in weakness allowed Delilah’s unholy hand to touch it, he lost both strength and victory. God left him, because he held the honor of his God cheaper than his own pleasures. Because he gave up that which he knew was not his own, God left him in dishonor to find his way to penitence. He who could not withstand the allurements of a woman, even when they demanded the surrender of his vocation, was not worthy any more to withstand the enemy. His eyes, blinded by sensuality, saw not the treason: soon, blinded by the enemy, he should see neither sun, nor men, but only God. That done, he turned back, and God came back to him.
It is not a beautiful comparison which is sometimes instituted between Delilah and Judas the traitor. For Samson was in fault, and Delilah was a Philistine. The woman is more excusable than the disciple who rose against his pure Master. But Samson is the type of all such children of men as know God, praise his grace, pray to Him, derive strength and love from Him, and yet fall. Sin is the ever present Delilah, who caused David, the Singer, to fall, and brought him to tearful repentance. Samson himself, rather than Delilah, was for a moment the traitor, who delivered the honor of his Lord to the insults of the enemy. Let no one think that he can safely enter danger. Pride goes before a fall. Self-confidence comes to a bad end; only confidence in God conducts through temptation. It is very proper to pray: Lord, lead me not into temptation; but very far from proper to enter into it of one’s own free-will.
The lust of the eyes is not guiltless. It is the gate to the most carnal desires. Sin always tortures, even as Delilah tortured Samson. It is never wearied in its efforts to induce virtue to betray itself. Flee, if thou canst not withstand! To flee from sin is heroism. Had Samson but run away from Delilah, as a coward runs, he had surely smitten the Philistines. Every lapse into sin must be repented of. None of us have aught wherein to glory, but all stand in need of repentance. When Saul recognized his sin in having persecuted Jesus, he became blind. But soon he saw, like Samson, no one but his Saviour.
“Make me blind,
So I but see thee, Saviour kind.”
Starke: Even great and holy persons may fall into gross sins, if they do not watch over themselves.—The same: To uncover our whole heart to God is our duty, but we are not bound to do it to our fellow-men.—The same: In the members with which men sin against God, they are also usually punished by God.—Gerlach: Samson thinks to hold as his own, and to use as he pleases, that which was only lent to him, and of the borrowed nature of which his Nazaritic distinction continually reminded him. It is thus that he prepares his deep fall for himself.—[Wordsworth: Samson replied to Delilah’s temptations by three lies; Christ replied to the devil’s temptation by three sayings from the Scripture of truth.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[6][Jdg_16:7.—יְתָרִים לַחִים: literally, “moist cords or strings.” Keil: “יֶתֶר means string, e. g., of a bow, Psa_11:2, and in Arabic and Syriac both bow-string and guitar-string. Now since the יְתָרִים are here distinguished from the עֲבֹתִים, ropes (Jdg_16:11). the former must be understood of animal tendons or gut-strings.” It is certainly in favor of this view that the יְתָרִים are to be “moist,” as also that it makes a strong and climactic distinction between וְתָרִים and עֲבֹתִים. Compare the rendering of the LXX.: νευραῖς ῦγραῖς.—Tr.]
[7][Jdg_16:9.—וְהָאִרֵב ישֵׁב לָהּ בָּחֶדֶר: “and the lurker sat for her in the apartment.” In itself considered, אֹרֵב might be collective, as rendered by the E. V. (cf. Jdg_20:33); but, although other Philistines may have been near at hand, it would be difficult to conceal the presence in the room itself of more than one, and hence it would hardly be attempted, לָהּ is dat. commodi. The rendering, “with her,” adopted also by Cassel (and De Wette), is not indeed impossible, but gives to לְ a meaning which it rarely has, and which is here less suitable.—Tr.]
[8]Jdg_16:18.—The reading לִי of the keri is evidently the correct one, notwithstanding Keil’s remarks in favor of לָהּ. Keil would make the clause a remark inserted by the narrator: “for he had showed her (לָהּ) all his heart.”—Tr.]
[9][Jdg_16:19.—וַתְּגַלַּח: “and she shaved.” The piel is not causative here; compare the pual in Jdg_16:17. The E. V. seems to accept the interpretation of the Vulgate and Alex. Sept., which translate לָאִישׁ by “barber.” “The man” (לְהָאִישׁ = לָאִיּשׁ) is probably the Philistine who was on duty at the time as “lurker;” and Delilah calls on him, in order to have somebody near to defend her should Samson wake during the shearing process. Cf. Keil.—Tr.]
[10][Jdg_16:20.—אִנָּעֵר: Dr. Cassel translates, will mich ermannen, “put on and assert my manhood.” He supposes Samson to see the Philistines, and to express his determination to give them battle as heretofore (see below). But not to say that נִנְעַר will not bear this sense, it seems clear that the “other times” refer to the previous attempts of Delilah to master his secret.—Tr.]
[11]Cf. Bamidbar Rabba, § 9, p. 194 b.
[12] סֶרֶן, סְרָנִים: probably etymologically connected with the Greek θ́ρανν-ος. The Targum translates טוּרְנֵי.
[13]The Targum speaks of 1,100 silver silin (סִלְעִין, from סֶלָע). On the relation of the sela to the shekel, cf. my “Jüdische Geschichte,” in Ersch and Gruber’s Encyklopadie, p. 30.
[14][Compare Jos., Ant. v. 8, 11—Tr.]
[15][Dr. Cassel assumes all through the present discussion that Delilah was a Philistine woman. He is probably correct, cf. Smith’s Bible Dict., art. “Delilah.” Wordsworth, however, who regards her as “a light, venal woman of Samson’s own tribe,” makes a suggestion worthy of consideration on the other side. “Hence,” he says (namely, she being an Israelitess), “she professed love for Samson, when she said, ‘The Philistines’ (mine enemies as well as thine) ‘are upon thee, Samson.’ He was the more easily caught in the snare because he could not imagine that a woman of Israel would betray him.”—Tr.]
[16]Mediæval superstition reproduces this also. Cloths are required for alchemistic purposes which have been finished by “undefiled persons.”
[17] אָלַץ occurs only here; cf. ἅλγος, ἀλγύνω. Similar is אוּלְצָן, hunger.
[18]In the Middle Ages it was believed that she had stupified him by means of opium. This view transmitted itself even into the “Chronicon Engelhusii,” in Leibnitz, Script. Rev. Brunsvic. Illustr. Inserv. ii. Judges 989: “Samson opio potatus,” etc.
[19]Cf. Hyginus, Fab. Judges 198: purpureum crinem. Virgil, Ciris, 16:121: Candida cæsaries.… et roseus medio fulgebat vertice crinis. The “golden hairs” of Schwarz (Urspr. der Mythol. p. 144) are therefore to be corrected as also Bertheau’s “protecting hair.”
[20]Such is also the Roman Catholic representation found in Bergier, Dict. Theologique, p. Judges 635: “La conservation de ***ves cheveux était la condition de ce privilège comme la marque de son nazaréat, mais nullement la cause de sa force surnaturelle.”
[21]Cf. Bamidbar Rabba, § 14. p. 214 d.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 DELILAH CORRUPTED BY THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 16:4-14)
DELILAH CORRUPTED BY THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 16:4-14)
he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek--The location of this place is not known, nor can the character of Delilah be clearly ascertained. Her abode, her mercenary character, and her heartless blandishments afford too much reason to believe she was a profligate woman.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 SAMSON AND DELILAH, Jdg_16:4-20.
SAMSON AND DELILAH, Jdg_16:4-20.
4. Loved a woman… Delilah — She was, doubtless, a Philistine woman, and it comports well with Samson’s history that among the daughters of that people he found his earliest and his latest love. The name
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Delilah — languishing, or enfeebling — suggests, says Cassel, how “sensuality sings and lulls the manly strength of the hero to sleep.”
The valley of Sorek — Sorek means a vine or vine plantation, and probably took its name from the extensive cultivation of the grape. No trace of any town of this name has been found; but just south of Zorah runs the Wady-es-Surar, a wide and fertile valley, which, at least, bears some resemblance to the name, and is admirably adapted to the cultivation of the vine.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 4–31. Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end
4–31. Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end
4. the valley of Sorek] Now Wâdi eṣ-Ṣarâr, a broad valley narrowing as it rises towards the Judaean highlands; the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem ascends the lower part of it. Soreḳ denotes a choice kind of vine (Gen_49:11, Isa_5:2, Jer_2:21), which may have given its name to the valley. A ruined site near Ṣar‘a (Jdg_13:2 n.) is still called Sûrîk.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 (4) He loved a woman.—Delilah was not, as Milton…
(4) He loved a woman.—Delilah was not, as Milton represents, his wife. Josephus (Antt. v. 8, § 11) says that she was one who played the harlot among the Philistines, and the fathers all speak of her in similar terms. Nor is it at all clear—as is generally assumed—that she was a Philistine.
In the valley of Sorek.—The English Version here follows the Vulgate, but the word for valley is nachal, and the words may mean (as the LXX. take them) “on the brook of Sorek.” Sorek was not in the Philistine district, but was near Samson’s native town of Zorah (Jdg_13:2). It seems to have derived its name from the “choice vines” that grew there (Gen_49:11; Isa_5:2; Jer_2:21, Hebr.).
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Delilah.—The “tender” or “delicate.” Ewald thinks it means “the traitress,” referring to Journ. Asiat., 2:389. The Rabbis refer it to the root daldal, “to debilitate.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Sorek. See Jud_1:14:5, note. The name has not yet…
Sorek. See Jud_1:14:5, note. The name has not yet been discovered as applied to any existing spot; but Eusebius in the "Onomasticon" speaks of a village Caphar-sorek as still existing near Zorah. The term valley ( nachal) describes a wady, i.e. a narrow valley with a stream.
Vers. 4-21. Samson"s betrayal and fall.
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The long-suffering of God, which the saints are exhorted (2Pe_2:15) to account salvation, is in Samson s case presumed upon, and the besetting sin at last finds him out. The sin is single, but it is not the first of its kind, nor is it isolated. The years of self-indulgence were preparing for this a mad revel of voluptuousness and a deliberate denial of Jehovah. The scenes of this tragedy have a typical interest, and they are sketched lightly but indelibly by a master hand. In the gradual but deliberate breaking of his vow we have a parallel to Peter"s threefold denial of his Lord.
I SENSUALITY LULLS THE SOUL INTO A FATAL SLUMBER, AND DESTROYS ITS SENSE OF DUTY AND ITS CAPACITY FOR USEFULNESS.
II COMPANIONS IN GUILT MAY DO US MORE HARM THAN OUR WORST ENEMIES. Here the serviceableness of Delilah is at once perceived by her fellow-countrymen, and they hasten to make use of her. The bribe offered, not necessarily ever paid, not only shows the importance of Samson in their eyes, but the value they set upon the influence of this lustful woman. How much mischief can a single transgressor do, not only directly, but through influence! Here it was not only a man betrayed to his enemies, but a soul undone. "What shall a man give," etc. "He knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell". (Pro_9:15-18) The harlot"s house, and what it introduces to.
III THE UNGODLY MISAPPREHEND THE SECRET AND NATURE OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. The Philistines evidently thought Samson"s power lay in the efficacy of some charm. It is this they seek to obtain. They are incapable of thinking of a higher influence. Samson accordingly plays with this superstitious fancy, giving at the same time in each of his answers a parabolic or riddle-like shadowing forth of the true secret. So Satan and his servants tempt the Christian by altering the outward circumstances of life, associations, habits, etc., through which the life works, but of which it is independent. Until the saint yields it up, the secret of his life with God is safe.
IV EVEN IN THE MOMENT AND CRISIS OF SPIRITUAL DOWNFALL THERE ARE DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS, RETARDATIONS, AND OCCASIONS FOR REPENTANCE. The Spirit of God was evidently working through the mind of Samson, and suggesting the evasive riddles, parables, etc., that seeing they might not see, etc. The question of his downfall is thereby brought several times before himself ere it actually takes place. So Peter and the cock-crow. In how many lives is this providential method illustrated! Temptation is played with until, constrictor-like, it springs upon its prey. Recollections of childhood"s lessons, early scenes, etc. are very potent at such times.
V WHEN THE SAINT"S VOW TO GOD IS BROKEN, ALL IS LOST. The secret is out, and the charmed life is helpless. A wreck of a man. Nothing left but the memory of an irreparable past and the burden of self-wrought helplessness. There are no ruins so pitiful as those of men who once were saints and Christian workers, Sunday-school teachers, ministers, etc. How dark is the world and life when the soul"s light has gone out! With God the weakest is strong, without him the strongest is weak. "His eyes, blinded by sensuality, saw not the treason; soon, blinded by the enemy, he should see neither sun, nor men, but only God. That done, he turned back, and God came back to him" (Lange). M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v4 THE strong bold man who has blindly fought his…
THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH
Jdg_16:4-31
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THE strong bold man who has blindly fought his battles and sold himself to the traitress and to the enemy, "Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves," the sport and scorn of those who once feared him, is a mournful object. As we look upon him there in his humiliation, his temper and power wasted, his life withered in its prime, we almost forget the folly and the sin, so much are we moved to pity and regret. For Samson is a picture, vigorous in outline and colour, of what in a less striking way many are and many more would be if it were not for restraints of divine grace. A fallen hero is this. But the career of multitudes without the dash and energy ends in the like misery of defeat; nothing done, not much attempted, their existence fades into the sere and yellow leaf. There has been no ardour to make death glorious.
Every man has his defects, his besetting sins, his dangers. It is in the consciousness of our own that we approach with sorrow the last scenes of the eventful history of Samson. Who dares cast a stone at him? Who can fling a taunt as he is seen groping about in his blindness?
"A little onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on.
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade;
There I am wont to sit when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil.
O dark, dark, dark amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark total eclipse
Without all hope of day":
So we hear him bewail his lot. And we, perchance, feeling weakness creep over us while bonds of circumstance still hold us from what we see to be our divine calling, -we compassionate ourselves in pitying him; or, if we are as yet strong and buoyant, our history before us, plans for useful service of our time clearly in view, have we not already felt the symptoms of moral infirmity which make it doubtful whether we shall reach our goal? There are many hindrances, and even the brave unselfish man who never loiters in Gaza or in the treacherous valley may find his way barred by obstacles he cannot remove. But in the case of most the hindrances within are the most numerous and powerful. This man who should effect much for his age is held by love which blinds him, that other by hatred which masters him. Now covetousness, now pride is the deterrent. Many begin to know themselves and the difficulty of doing great tasks for God and man when noontide is past and the day has begun to decline. Great numbers have only dreamed of attempting something and have never bestirred themselves to act. So it is that Samsons defeat appears a symbol of the pathetic human failure. To many his character is full of sad interest, for in it they see what they have fears of becoming or what they have already become.
What has Samson lost when he has revealed his secret to Delilah? Observe him when he goes forth from the womans house and stands in the sunlight. Apart from the want of his waving locks he seems the same and is physically the same; muscle and sinew, bone and nerve, stout-beating heart and strong arm, Samson is there. And his human will is as eager as ever; he is a bold daring man this morning as he was last evening, with the same dream of "breaking through all" and bearing himself as king. But he is more lonely than ever before; something has gone from his soul. A heavy sense of faithlessness to one prized distinction and known duty oppresses him. Shake thyself as at other times, poor rash Samson, but know in thy heart that at last thou art powerless: the audacity of faith is no longer thine. Thou art the natural man still, but that is not enough, the spiritual sanction gone. The Philistines, half afraid, gather about thee ten to one; they can bind now and lead captive, for thou hast lost the girdle which knit thy powers together and made thee invincible. The consciousness of being Gods man is gone-the consciousness of being true to that which united thee in a rude but very real bond to the Almighty. Thou hast scorned the vow which kept thee from the abyss and with the knowledge of utter moral baseness comes physical prostration, despair, feebleness, ruin. Samson at last knows himself to be no king at all, no hero nor judge.
It is common to think the spiritual of little account, faith in God of little account. Suppose men give that up; suppose they no longer hold themselves bound by duty to the Almighty; they expect nevertheless to continue the same. They will still have their reason, their strength of body and of mind; they believe that all they once did they shall still be able to do and now more freely in their own way, therefore even more successfully. Is that so? Hope is a spiritual thing. It is apart from bodily strength, distinct from energy and manual skill. Take hope away from a man, the strongest, the bravest, the most intelligent, and will he be the same? Nay. His eye loses its lustre; the vigour of his will decays; he lies powerless and defeated. Or take love away-love which is again a spiritual thing. Let the ardour, the reason for exertion which love inspired pass away. Let the man who loved and would have dared all for love be deprived of that source of vital power, and he will dare no longer. Sad and weary and dispirited he will cast himself down, careless of life.
But hope and love are not so necessary to the full tide of human vigour, are not so potent in stirring the powers of manhood as the friendship of God, the consciousness that made by God for ends of His we have Him as our stay. Indeed without this consciousness manhood never finds its strength. This gives a hope far higher and more sustaining than any of a personal or temporal kind. It makes us strong by virtue of the finest and deepest affection which can possibly move us; and more than that it gives to life full meaning, proper aim and justification. A man without the sense of a divine origin and election has no standing ground; he is so to speak without the right of existence, he has no claim to be heard in speaking and to have a place among those who act. But he who feels himself to be in the world on Gods business, to be Gods servant, has his assured place and claim as a man, and can see reason and purpose for every sharp trial to which he is put. Here then is the secret of strength, the only source of power and steadfastness for any man or woman. And he who has had it and lost it, breaking with God for the sake of gain or pleasure or some earthly affection, must like Samson feel his vigour sapped, his confidence forfeited. Now his power to command, to advise, to contend for any worthy result has passed away. He is a tree whose root ceases to feed in the soil though still the leaves are green.
The spiritual loss, the loss of living faith, is the great one: but is it for that we generally pity ourselves or any person known to us? Life and freedom are dear, the ability to put forth energy at our wilt, the sense of capacity; and it is the loss of these in outward and visible ranges that most moves us to grief. We commiserate the strong man whose exploits in the world seem to be over, as we pity the orator whose power of speech is gone, the artist who can no more handle the brush, the eager merchant whose bargaining is done. We give our sympathy to Samson, because in the midst of his days he has fallen overcome by treachery, because the cruelty of enemies has afflicted him. Yet, looking at the truth of things, the real cause of pity is deeper than any of these and different. A man who is still in living touch with God can suffer the saddest deprivations and retain a cheerful heart, unbroken courage and hope. Suppose that Samson, surprised by his enemies while he was about some worthy task, had been seized, deprived of his sight, bound with fetters of iron and consigned to prison. Should we then have had to pity him as we must when he is taken, a traitor to himself, the dupe of a deceiver, with the badge of his vow and the sense of his fidelity gone? We feel with Jeremiah in his affliction; we feel with John the Baptist confined in the prison into which Herod has cast him, with St. Paul in the Philippian dungeon, and with St. Peter lying bound with chains in the castle of Jerusalem. But we do not commiserate, we admire and exult. Here are men who endure for the right. They are martyrs, fellow sufferers with Christ: they are marching with the cohorts of God to the deliverances of eternity. Ah! It is the men who are "martyrs by the pang without the palm," the men who have lost not only liberty but nobleness, who dragged after false lures have sold their prudence and their strength-these it is for whom we need to weep. He who doing his duty has been mastered by enemies, he who fighting a brave battle has been overcome-let us not dare to pity him. But the man who has given up the battle of faith, who has lost his glory, him the heavens look upon with the profound sorrow that is called for by a wasted life.
And how pathetic the touch: "He wist not that the Lord had departed from him." For a little time he failed to realise the spiritual disaster he had brought on himself. For a little time only; soon the dark conviction seized him. But worse still would have been his ease if he had remained unconscious of loss. This sense of weakness is the last boon to the sinner. God still does this for him, poor headstrong child of nature as he would fain be, living by and for himself: he is not permitted. Whether he will own it or not he shall be weak and useless until he returns to God and to himself. Often indeed we find the enslaved Samson refusing to allow that anything is wrong with him. Out of sight of the world, in some very secret place he has broken the obligations of faith, temperance, chastity, and yet thinks no special result has followed. He can meet the demands of society and that is enough, supposing the matter should come to light. Of the subtle poisoning of his own soul he has no thought. Is the thing hidden then? The law which determines that as a man is so his strength shall be follows every one into the most secret place. It keeps watch over our veracity, our sobriety, our purity, our faithfulness. Whenever in one point our covenant with God is broken a part of strength is taken away. Do we not perceive the loss? Do we flatter ourselves that all is as before? That is only our spiritual blindness; the fact remains.
What a pitiful thing it is to see men in this plight trying in vain to go about as if nothing had happened and they were as fit as ever for their places in society and in the church! We do not speak solely of sins like those into which Samson and David fell. There are others, scarcely reckoned sins, which as surely result in moral weakness perceived or unperceived, in the loss of Gods countenance and support. Our covenant is to be pure and also merciful; let one fail in mercifulness, let there be a harsh pitiless temper cherished in secret, and this as well as impurity will make him morally weak. Our covenant is to be generous as well as honest; let a man keep from the poor and from the church what he ought to give, and he will lose his strength of soul as surely as if he cheated another in trade, or took what was not his own. But we distinguish between sin and default and think of the latter as a mere infirmity which has no ill effect. There is no acknowledgment of loss even when it has become almost complete. The man who is not generous nor merciful, nor a defender of faith goes on thinking all is well with him, imagining that his futile religious exercises or gifts to this and that keep him on good terms with God and that he is helping the world, while in truth he has not the moral strength of a child. He acts the part of a Christian teacher or servant of the church, he leads in prayer, he joins in deliberations that have to do with the success of Christian work. To himself all seems satisfactory and he expects that good shall result from his efforts. But it cannot be. There is the strain of exertion, but no power.
Do we wonder that more is not effected by our organisations, religious and other, which seem so powerful, quite capable of Christianising and reforming the world? The reason is that many of the professed religious and benevolent, who appear zealous and strenuous, are dying at heart. The Lord may not have departed from them utterly; they are not dead; there is still a rootlet of spiritual being. But they cannot fight; they cannot help others; they cannot run in the way of Gods commandments. Are we not bound to ask ourselves how we stand, whether any failure in our covenant keeping has made us spiritually weak. If we are paltering with eternal facts, if between us and the one Source of Life there is a widening distance surely the need is urgent for a return to Christian honour and fidelity which will make us strong and useful.
And there is something here in the story of Samson that bids us think hopefully of a new way and a new life. In the misery to which he was reduced there came to him with renewed acceptance of his vow a fresh endowment of vigour. It is the divine healing, the grace of the long-suffering Father which are thus represented. No human soul needs to be utterly disconsolate, for grace waits ever on discomfiture. Return to me, says the Lord, and I will return to you; I will heal your backslidings and love you freely. Out of the deepest depths there is a way to the heights of spiritual privilege and power. To confess our faults and sins, to resume the fidelity, the uprightness, the generosity and mercifulness we renounced, to take again the straight upward path of self-denial and duty-this is always reserved for the soul that has not utterly perished. The man, young or old, who has become weaker than a child for any good work may hear the call that speaks of hope. He who in self-indulgence or hard worldliness has abandoned God may turn again to the Fathers entreaty, "Remember from what thou hast fallen and repent."
We pass now to consider a point suggested by the terms in which the Philistines triumphed over their captured foe. When the people saw him they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country which hath slain many of us. Here the ignorant religiousness and gratitude of Philistines to a god which was no God might provoke a smile were it not for the consideration that under the clear light of Christianity equal ignorance is often shown by those who profess to be piously grateful. You say it was the bribe which the Philistine lords offered to Delilah and her treachery and Samsons sin that put him in the enemys hand. You say, Surely the most ignorant man in Gaza must have seen that Dagon had nothing whatever to do with the result. And yet it is very common to ascribe to God what is nowise His doing. There are indeed times when we almost shudder to hear God thanked for that which could only be attributed to a Dagon or a Moloch.
We are told of the tribal gods of those old Syrians-Baal, Melcarth, Sutekh, Milcom and the rest-each adored as master and protector by some people or race. Piously the devotees of each god acknowledged his hand in every victory and every fortunate circumstance, at the same time tracing to his anger and their own neglect of duty to him all calamities and defeats. May it not be said that the belief of many still is in a tribal god, falsely called by the name of Jehovah, a god whose chief function is to look after their interests whoever may suffer, and take their side in all quarrels whoever may be in the right? Men make for themselves the rude outline of a divinity who is supposed to be indifferent or hostile to every circle but their own, suspicious of every church but their own, careless of the sufferings of all but themselves. In two countries that are at war prayers for success will ascend in almost the same terms to one who is thought of as a national protector, not to the Father of all; each side is utterly regardless of the other, makes no allowance in prayer for the possibility that the other may be in the right. The thanksgivings of the victors too will be mixed with glorying almost fiendish over the defeated, whose blood, it may be, dyed in pathetic martyrdom their own hillsides and valleys. In less flagrant cases, where it is only a question of gain or loss in trade, of getting some object of desire, the same spirit is shown. God is thanked for bestowing that of which another, perhaps more worthy, is deprived. It is not to the kindness of Heaven, but rather to the proving severity of God, we may say, that the result is due. Looking on with clear eyes we see something very different from divine approval in the prosperous efforts of unscrupulous push and wire pulling. Those who have much success in the world have need to justify their comforts and the praise they enjoy. They need to show cause to the ranks of the obscure and ill paid for their superior fortune. Success like theirs cannot be admitted as a special mark of the favour of that God Whose ways are equal, Whose name is the Holy and Just.
Next look at the ignoble task to which Samson is put by the Philistines, a type of the ignominious uses to which the hero may be doomed by the crowd. The multitude cannot be trusted with a great man.
In the prison at Gaza the fallen chief was set to grind corn, to do the work of slaves. To him, indeed, work was a blessing. From the bitter thoughts that would have eaten out his heart he was somewhat delivered by the irksome labour. In reality, as we now perceive, no work degrades; but a man of Samsons type and period thought differently. The Philistine purpose was to degrade him; and the Hebrew captive would feel in the depths of his hot brooding nature the humiliating doom. Look then at the parallels. Think of a great statesman placed at the head of a nation to guide its policy in the line of righteousness, to bring its laws into harmony with the principles of human freedom and divine justice-think of such a one, while labouring at his sacred task with all the ardour of a noble heart, called to account by those whose only desire is for better trade, the means of beating their rivals in some market or bolstering up their failing speculations. Or see him at another time pursued by the cry of a class that feels its prescriptive rights invaded or its position threatened. Take again a poet, an artist, a writer, a preacher intent on great themes, eagerly following after the ideal to which he has devoted himself, but exposed every moment to the criticism of men who have no soul-held up to ridicule and reprobation because he does not accept vulgar models and repeat the catchwords of this or that party. Philistinism is always in this way asserting its claim, and ever and anon it succeeds in dragging some ardent soul into the dungeon to grind thenceforth at the mill.
With the very highest too it is not afraid to intermeddle. Christ Himself is not safe. The Philistines of today are doing their utmost to make His name inglorious. For what else is the modern cry that Christianity should be chiefly about the business of making life comfortable in this world and providing not only bread but amusement for the crowd? The ideas of the church are not practical enough for this generation. To get rid of sin-that is a dream; to make men fearers of God, soldiers of truth, doers of righteousness at all hazards-that is in the air. Let it be given up; let us seek what we can reach; bind the name of Christ and the Spirit of Christ in chains to the work of a practical secularism, and let us turn churches into pleasant lounging places and picture galleries. Why should the soul have the benefit of so great a name as that of the Son of God? Is not the body more? Is not the main business to have houses and railways, news and enjoyment? The policy of undeifying Christ is having too much success. If it make way there will soon be need for a fresh departure into the wilderness.
The last scene of Samsons history awaits us-the gigantic effort, the awful revenge in which the Hebrew champion ended his days. In one sense it aptly crowns the mans career. The sacred historian is not composing a romance, yet the end could not have been more fit. Strangely enough it has given occasion for preaching the doctrine of self-sacrifice as the only means of highest achievement, and we are asked to see here an example of the finest heroism, the most sublime devotion. Samson dying for his country is likened to Christ dying for His people.
It is impossible to allow this for a moment. Not Miltons apology for Samson, not the authority of all the illustrious men who have drawn the parallel can keep us from deciding that this was a case of vengeance and self-murder, not of noble devotion. We have no sense of vindicated principle when we see that temple fall in terrible ruin, but a thrill of disappointment and keen sorrow that a servant of Jehovah should have done this in His name. The lords of the Philistines, all the serens or chiefs of the hundred cities are gathered in the ample porch of the building. True, they are assembled at an idolatrous feast; but this idolatry is their religion which they cannot choose but exercise, for they know of no better, nor has Samson ever done one deed or spoken one word that could convince them of error. True, they are met to rejoice over their enemy and they call for him in cruel vainglory to make them sport. Yet this is the man who for his sport and in his revenge once burned the standing corn of a whole valley and more than once went on slaying Philistines till he was weary. True, Samson as a patriotic Israelite views these people as enemies. Yet it was among them he first sought a wife and afterwards pleasure. And now, if he decides to die that he may kill a thousand enemies at once, is the self-chosen death less an act of suicide?
If this was truly a fine act of self-sacrifice what good came of it? The sacrifice that is to be praised does distinct and clearly purposed service to some worthy cause or high moral end. We do not find that this dreadful deed reconciled the Philistines to Israel or moved them to belief in Jehovah. We observe, on the contrary, that it went to increase the hatred between race and race, so that when Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites no longer vex Israel these Philistines show more deadly antagonism-antagonism of which Israel knew the heat when on the red field of Gilboa the kingly Saul and the well beloved Jonathan were together stricken down in death. If there was in Samsons mind any thought of vindicating a principle it was that of Israels dignity as the people of Jehovah. But here his testimony was worthless.
As we have already said, much is written about self-sacrifice which is sheer mockery of truth, most falsely sentimental. Men and women are urged to the notion that if they can only find some pretext for renouncing freedom, for curbing and endangering life, for stepping aside from the way of common service that they may give up something in an uncommon way for the sake of any person or cause, good will come of it. The doctrine is a lie. The sacrifice of Christ was not of that kind. It was under the influence of no blind desire to give up His life, but first under the pressure of a supreme providential necessity, then in renunciation of the earthly life for a dearly seen and personally embraced divine end, the reconciliation of man to God, the setting forth of a propitiation for the sin of the world-for this it was He died. He willed to be our Saviour; having so chosen He bowed to the burden that was laid upon Him. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief." To the end He foresaw and desired there was but one way-and the way was that of death because of mans wickedness and ruin.
Suffering for itself is no end and never can be to God or to Christ or to a good man. It is a necessity on the way to the ends of righteousness and love. If personality is not a delusion and salvation a dream there must be in every case of Christian renunciation some distinct moral aim in view for every one concerned, and there must be at each step, as in the action of our Lord, the most distinct and unwavering sincerity, the most direct truthfulness. Anything else is a sin against God and humanity. We entreat would be moralists of the day to comprehend before they write of "self-sacrifice." The sacrifice of the moral judgment is always a crime, and to preach needless suffering for the sake of covering up sin or as a means of atoning for past defects is to utter most unchristian falsehood.
Samson threw away a life of which he was weary and ashamed. He threw it away in avenging a cruelty; but it was a cruelty he had no reason to call a wrong. "O God, that I might be avenged!"-that was no prayer of a faithful heart. It was the prayer of envenomed hatred, of a soul still unregenerate after trial. His death was indeed self-sacrifice-the sacrifice of the higher self, the true self, to the lower. Samson should have endured patiently, magnifying God. Or we can imagine something not perfect yet heroic. Had he said to those Philistines, My people and you have been too long at enmity. Let there be an end of it. Avenge yourselves, on me, then cease from harassing Israel, -that would have been like a brave man. But it is not this we find. And we close the story of Samson more sad than ever that Israels history has not: taught a great man to be a good man, that the hero has not achieved the morally heroic, that adversity has not begotten in him a wise patience and magnanimity. Yet he had a place under Divine Providence. The dim troubled faith that was in his soul was not altogether fruitless. No Jehovah worshipper would ever think of bowing before that god whose temple fell in ruins on the captive Israelite and his thousand victims.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v4 Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah
v. 4. And it came to pass afterward, some time after this exploit, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. This was not very far from his home place, and he entered into an unlawful union with this woman, whose name is purposely mentioned, for she, by her sinful fascination, debilitated his strength.
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v. 5. And the lords of the Philistines, well acquainted with the power of voluptuousness, came up unto her and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, by making use of every possible allurement she was to find out the secret of his great strength, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, to get him into their power and permanently to subdue him; and we will give thee, everyone of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver, a sum totaling between 3,000 and 3,500 dollars, frankly bribe money. As a true daughter of Philistia the woman agreed to sell the man who trusted her so foolishly.
v. 6. And Delilah said to Samson, feigning a flattering reverence for his great strength, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee, so that some one might get him into his power.
v. 7. And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withes, seven cords of animal tendons not yet stretched, that were never dried, then shall I be weak and be as another man, endowed with only the normal strength of the average man.
v. 8. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withes which had not been dried, ropes made of fresh tendons, and she bound him with them, very likely with an air of playfulness.
v. 9. Now there were men lying in wait, in ambush, abiding with her in the chamber, for she had permitted a Philistine spy to conceal himself in the inner apartment. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he, momentarily brought back to his senses by her cry of treason, brake the withes as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire, when it is brought near enough to feel the fire’s heat. So his strength was not known.
v. 10. And Delilah said unto Samson, "with the brazen effrontery characteristic of women whose charms are great and whose hearts are bad," Behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies; now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.
v. 11. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, that had never been used for any kind of work, then shall I be weak and be as another man.
v. 12. Delilah therefore took new ropes and bound him therewith, again as unconcerned as possible, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers-in-wait abiding in the chamber; she had again permitted a Philistine spy to conceal himself in the inner apartment. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.
v. 13. And Delilah said unto Samson, her avarice and vexation goading her on, Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies; tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. She is past cajolery and now demands to know. And he said unto her, coming ever nearer to the full truth, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web, namely, that on the loom standing in her apartment, as common, in those days, as a spinning-wheel was at later periods in other countries.
v. 14. And she, acting upon his suggestion, wove the long hair of his head into her web as woof, and then fastened it with the pin, the batten which is used to beat up the weft, thus clamping his hair securely to the loom, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, for he had fallen asleep while she was operating the loom, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web, he wrenched his hair loose and left the disappointed woman with her loom.
v. 15. And she said unto him, at his next visit, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? She reproached him with the insincerity of his regard for her, since real affection would have no secrets from her. Thou hast mocked me these three times and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
v. 16. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, ceaselessly teasing and boring him to death, so that his soul was vexed unto death, plagued with impatience with her and so weary that the freshness and keenness of his mind were gone from him,
v. 17. that he told her all his heart, he unfolded to her the innnermost secrets of his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.
v. 18. And when Delilah saw, judging from his entire attitude, that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, who had evidently become doubtful as to results, saying, Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand, for Delilah would undoubtedly not have gone ahead with her betrayal of her lover unless she had had the definite assurance that the money which she coveted would be forthcoming.
v. 19. And she made him, Samson, sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, one of those concealed in ambush in her apartment, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, she, the weak woman, was strong enough to manage him, and his strength went from him.
v. 20. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself, thus freeing himself from the fetters and from the hands of the Philistines. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him, with the clipping of his hair, with the end of his Nazarite state, Jehovah had gone from him.
v. 21. But the Philistines took him, laid hold on him in avenging hatred, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, as a safeguard against his escaping; and he did grind in the prison-house, condemned to the lowest work of female slaves. That is the invariable result if men love the lusts of the world, especially such sins against the Sixth Commandment. He who yields to the temptation several times will become weaker with every attack made upon him, until he becomes a slave of sin.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18 Valley of Sorek
Valley of Sorek
This is the name of a valley near Samson's home. (See: How to Translate Names)
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Trick
to mislead or fool someone into doing something they would not want to do
to see
This is an idiom that means to learn something. AT: "to understand" or "to learn" (See: Idiom)
where his great strength lies
This is an idiom that refers to where his strength comes from. AT: "what causes him to be very strong" (See: Idiom)
by what means we may overpower him
"how we might overpower him"""
1,100 pieces of silver
"one thousand one hundred pieces of silver." (See: Numbers)
translationWords
Samson
Delilah
rule
Philistines
bind
silver
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.