April 5, 2025 -Sampson & Delilah

JUDGES 16:1-18:31

Chronological Bible Readings

Judges 16:11 Samson replied, “If I were tied up with brand-new ropes that had never been used, I would become as weak as anyone else.”

Judges 15:13 “We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines,” they replied. “We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

I noticed yesterday that Sampson was tied up and taken to the Philistines in chapter 15 it was with new ropes. It caught my attention because I thought I remembered that that was one of the things that he had told Delilah. I am guessing that Delilah didn't know that. She was acting coy and playful with him to put him at ease and find out his secret. When she was calling out that the Philistines are there to capture him those who were hidden did not come out of hiding. They were waiting so that if it worked they could take him. So it would look to him like a game she was playing with him.

Judges 16:13 Then Delilah said, “You’ve been making fun of me and telling me lies! Now tell me how you can be tied up securely.”

Samson replied, “If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I would become as weak as anyone else.”

So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric. 14 Then she tightened it with the loom shuttle. Again she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson woke up, pulled back the loom shuttle, and yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric.

At this point it doesn't say that the Philistines were hiding in the room. They had stopped coming to the house. She kept asking and he played the game a little longer.

Judges 16:17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

I wonder if Sampson knew for sure that if his hair was cut he would lose his strength? Maybe he was just opening up to her about some personal truths thinking that would make her feel more loved instead of betrayed. When he wakes up he expects to be able to break the ropes like he did before. He had to have known that she was going to cut his hair. Why would he have told her if he knew for sure it would leave him weak. We know that God uses all things for His good so this weakness he had for Philistine women put him in vulnerable position and he suffered being blinded and imprisoned because of it. But through it all God had a plan to use that for good.