16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? 1 Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.” 16:16 She nagged him 2 every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it. 3 16:17 Finally he told her his secret. 4 He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, 5 for I have been dedicated to God 6 from the time I was conceived. 7 If my head 8 were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”
1 tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”
2 tn Heb “forced him with her words.”
3 tn Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”
4 tn Heb “all his heart.”
5 tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”
6 tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).
7 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”
8 tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).