Judges 6:14

6:14 Then the Lord himself¹ turned to him and said, “You have the strength.² Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites!³ Have I not sent you?”

Judges 16:6

16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.”⁴

Judges 16:19

16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap⁵ and then called a man in to shave off⁶ the seven braids of his hair.⁷ She made him vulnerable⁸ and his strength left him.

Judges 16:5

16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate⁹ him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

Judges 16:9

16:9 They hid¹⁰ in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here,¹¹ Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.¹² The secret of his strength was not discovered.¹³

Judges 16:15

16:15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me?¹⁴ Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”

Judges 16:17

16:17 Finally he told her his secret.¹⁵ He said to her, “My hair has never been cut,¹⁶ for I have been dedicated to God¹⁷ from the time I was conceived.¹⁸ If my head¹⁹ were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”

Judges 16:30

16:30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard²⁰ and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life.²¹

¹sn Some interpreters equate the Lord and the messenger in this story, but they are more likely distinct. In vv. 22-23 the Lord and Gideon continue to carry on a conversation after the messenger has vanished (v. 21).

²tn Heb “Go in this strength of yours.”

³tn Heb “the hand of Midian.”

⁴tn Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”

⁷tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.

⁸tn Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.

⁹tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.

¹⁰tn Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.

¹⁰tn Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”

¹³tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).

¹⁴tn Heb “are upon you.”

¹⁵tn Heb “when it smells fire.”

¹⁶tn Heb “His strength was not known.”

¹⁶tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”

¹⁹tn Heb “all his heart.”

²⁰tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”

²¹tn 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”).

²²tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”

²³tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).

²²tn Heb “he stretched out with strength.”

²³tn Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”