Judges 16:16-31

16:16 She nagged him ¹  every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it. ²  16:17 Finally he told her his secret. ³  He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, ⁴  for I have been dedicated to God ⁵  from the time I was conceived. ⁶  If my head ⁷  were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.” 16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret, ⁸  she sent for ⁹  the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up here again, for he has told me ¹⁰  his secret.” ¹¹  So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands. 16:19 She made him go to sleep on her lap ¹²  and then called a man in to shave off ¹³  the seven braids of his hair. ¹⁴  She made him vulnerable ¹⁵  and his strength left him. 16:20 She said, “The Philistines are here, ¹⁶  Samson!” He woke up ¹⁷  and thought, ¹⁸  “I will do as I did before ¹⁹  and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him. 16:21 The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison. 16:22 His hair ²⁰  began to grow back after it had been shaved off.

Samson’s Death and Burial

16:23 The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.” 16:24 When the people saw him, ²¹  they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!” ²² 

16:25 When they really started celebrating, ²³  they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. ²⁴  They made him stand between two pillars. 16:26 Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Position me so I can touch the pillars that support the temple. ²⁵  Then I can lean on them.” 16:27 Now the temple ²⁶  was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain. 16:28 Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord, ²⁷  remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge ²⁸  against the Philistines for my two eyes!” 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple ²⁹  and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. 16:30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard ³⁰  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. ³¹  16:31 His brothers and all his family ³²  went down and brought him back. ³³  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ³⁴  Israel for twenty years.

[16:16]  ¹ tn Heb “forced him with her words.”

[16:16]  ² tn Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”

[16:17]  ³ tn Heb “all his heart.”

[16:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”

[16:17]  ⁵ 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”).

[16:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”

[16:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).

[16:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “all his heart.”

[16:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “she sent and summoned.”

[16:18]  ¹⁰ tc The translation follows the Qere, לִי (li, “to me”) rather than the Kethib, לָהּ (lah, “to her”).

[16:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all his heart.”

[16:19]  ¹² tn Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ.

[16:19]  ¹³ tn 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.

[16:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.

[16:19]  ¹⁵ tn 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.

[16:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “are upon you.”

[16:20]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and said.”

[16:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I will go out as before.”

[16:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the hair of his head.”

[16:24]  ²¹ tn Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges, 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.

[16:24]  ²² tn Heb “multiplied our dead.”

[16:25]  ²³ tn Heb “When their heart was good.”

[16:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “before them.”

[16:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house is founded.”

[16:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[16:28]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).

[16:28]  ²⁸ tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”

[16:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”

[16:30]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he stretched out with strength.”

[16:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”

[16:31]  ³² tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

[16:31]  ³³ tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

[16:31]  ³⁴ tn Traditionally, “judged.”