Judges 16:4-22

Judges 16:4-Song of Solomon : . Samson and Delilah.— It was quite near his own home, in the Vale of Sorek (“ Grape Valley” ), that the Philistines, a ided by the woman who had him in thrall, ultimately got the giant under their power. A ruined site near Zorah is still called Sû rî k. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway now runs through the valley. The meaning of “ Delilah” is unknown: perhaps it was a Philistine word, as the term for “ lords” or “ tyrants” ( seren, pl. sarnç) certainly was. Delilah was to receive £ 150 from each of the five for the betrayal of her lover.

Judges 16:7 . Instead of “ withes,” or flexible twigs, read “ seven cords of fresh sinews,” i.e. moist gut; Moore has “ bowstrings.” Seven was first a magical and then a sacred number ( cf. Judges 16:13).

Judges 16:10-1 Chronicles : . In the second attempt to discover the secret everything is clear.

Judges 16:13 b is an unfinished sentence. The LXX has, “ If thou weave the seven braids of my head along with the web, and beat up with the pin, my strength will fail and I shall be like other men. So while he slept Delilah took the seven braids of his head, and wove them . . . and said,” etc. She wove his hair into the warp with her fingers, beating it tight with the pin or batten. Samson awoke, and pulled up the whole framework— fixed posts and loom— by the hair of his head. Omit “ the pin of,” which was inserted by some reader who mistook the nature of the pin.

Judges 16:19 . Probably we should read “ and he shaved him” ; and the LXX proceeds “ and he began to be afflicted,” or “ humbled.”

Judges 16:20 . Yahweh departed from him because he had ceased to be a Nazirite.