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1Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here." And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, "Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him." 3But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
4After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, "Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver." 6So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you."
7Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man." 8Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
10Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound." 11And he said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man." 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
13Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man." 14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
15And 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 you have not told me where your great strength lies." 16And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17And he told her all his heart, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man."
18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up again, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. 22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
23Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand." 24And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, "Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us." 25And when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson, that he may entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them." 27Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.
28Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. 31Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.
With every woman that Samson chooses he moves further away from his spiritual home. Delilah is not merely a promiscuous woman. She is a devious character working overtime to ensnare and destroy Samson. And in this she will succeed.
In this story Samson's outright stupidity is on display. If Delilah wanted to divulge her true intentions, she could hardly have made it any more plain: "Please tell me where your strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you…" (16:6). After two failed attempts to overcome the Nazirite in Delilah's house, Samson is still not getting it. Delilah nags and torments him about his secret, even "to death" (16:16). The reference to death is ominous. Eventually his will is broken, and he reveals his secret knowledge.
16:17 says that, "He told her all his heart." In a sense, he gave away his heart. The sacred truth was that his strength came from God. He had been a Nazirite of God from his birth. His calling was not of his own choosing, but God made him a person devoted to his service. The author is keen on establishing a link between "strength" and "God": 16:19b in Hebrew states, "…his strength turned from upon him." Exactly the same phrase is found in the next verse, only with an alternate subject: "…he did not know that Yahweh had turned from upon him." The passage confirms that Samson's secret lay with God's consecration. When he gave away his secret knowledge for the love of Delilah, his strength left him, and so did God.
The Lord's consecration was also key to Israel's life. In Deut. 7:6ff. Moses exhorted his contemporaries with these words: "For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession…. It was not because you were more in number than any other people…, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because Yahweh loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers…." The secret of Israel and their success, which in Deut. 33:20 is described in terms of one man chasing a thousand (much like Samson), was God who caused them to differ by making them his people. Israel did not choose God, but God chose Israel, just as he chose Samson before he was born. Samson's strength was in Yahweh, and when he revealed his heart's secret, he also cast away his God.
What or who is the secret of our strength? Is it not God? Is it not our strength to accept and believe what God has done for us and made us in Christ, and to live accordingly? Indeed, God is our strength, and for this reason we must guard our heart "with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life" (Prov. 4:23).
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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