Judges 16 Delilah

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Judges 16:4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[a] of silver.”

6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

11 He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 an(b) tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.​

a. Judges 16:5 That is, about 28 pounds or about 13 kilograms
b. Judges 16:14 Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew replied, “I can if you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom.” 14 So she

Sticking with the easy English this morning....

Delilah was beautiful, but she was dangerous. Samson was strong, but he was also weak in some matters. He had not learned from his previous experience when a woman got information from him. The 5 rulers of the Philistines offered money to Delilah. They wanted her to discover how to control him. That is why they offered the money to her. They thought that he intended to attack their nation. They did not dare to go near to him. They did not know why he was so strong. They offered a large amount of money to Delilah. Samson loved Delilah so much that he did not feel doubtful about her. The leaders of the Philistines may have heard about their friendship. Samson said that they could tie him with bowstrings or new ropes. This was not true. Otherwise, it would have meant that he got his strength from magic. Earlier the men from Judah’s tribe had tied Samson with ropes. It had not succeeded, but the Philistines had forgotten that. Then Delilah wove his hair into some weaving on a machine. It was a machine with which people made cloth. When Samson woke up, he started to get up. But his hair was in the machine. So, when he got up, he pulled also the machine with him. He pulled with him everything that was on it. So, again Samson got free.

Now it doesn't give us a hint about how long after the hooker and stealing the city gates this takes place. The last verse of the Judges 15 said that Samson was Judge for 25 years and this is close to his demise.... so it seems to me [unstudied and absolutely not an authority] that this might be quite a bit later. IMHO Samson was older when he met Delilah. That doesn't seem to have made him any smarter about women.

I looked it up.... in today's market, 1100 shekels of silver would be worth about $12,500. So.... we have Delilah.... a magpie who's obviously in it for the money. Then there's Samson who's an idiot for women....

I found this at the Enduring Word site.

The source of Samson’s strength was not obvious. This means that he probably was not a large, heavily muscled man like a modern day bodybuilder. He may have looked small and skinny, and unlikely to have such strength.

When I was a kid I thought all the people in the Bible were my parents' age, kind and beautiful. That's what the Bible Stories and the beauty of the church taught me, I think. But now.... I know the Bible is full of dysfunctional, stupid, mean, magpies too. What makes it ok... they are related to Jesus somehow. Knowing that Jesus is going to come along makes it all ok somehow.

:coffee:
 
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