FRAMEWORKS:
Judges 16: Samson
and Delilah and his End
v.1-3
Samson goes to Gaza
v.4-6
Delilah is told to find the secret of his strength
v.7-9
His first lie
v.10-12
His second lie
v.13-14
His third lie
v.15-17
Samson gives away the secret of his strength
v.18-22
Samson is taken
v.23-31
The Death of Samson
v.1-3
Samson goes to Gaza
v.1
One
day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.
He went in to spend the night with her.
v.2
The
people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded
the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.
They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we'll kill
him.”
v.3
But
Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got
up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with
the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them
to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that
faces Hebron.
[Notes:
Time passes and Samson goes to one of the five chief towns of
Philistia where he spends a night with a prostitute. Somehow the
words gets out that he is there and the local Philistines plan
to kill him in the morning. In the locked in city, he simply lifts
off the city gate and frame and carries them off as a trophy,
some thirty five miles up to the top of a hill near Hebron.]
v.4-6
Delilah is told to find the secret of his strength
v.4
Some
time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek
[about three miles north east
of Ekron] whose name was Delilah.
v.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 of silver.”
v.6
So
Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength
and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
[Notes:
Delilah is the second woman to capture his hear. While he is staying
with her some of the Philistine leaders ask her to find out the
secret of his strength.]
v.7-9
His first lie
v.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.”
v.8 Then
the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings
that had not been dried, and she tied him with them.
v.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.
[Notes:
Samson tells her a practical way of overcoming him which would
not explain his strength and when she ties him up, he easily breaks
loose.]
v.10-12
His second lie
v.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.”
v.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.”
v.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.
[Notes:
She tries again and again he fools her and against breaks loose.]
v.13-14
His third lie
v.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
v.14
and
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.
[Notes:
A third time she tries and again he makes up a false reason, and
again he proves it wrong. He must surely be wondering why she
is doing this but as is said, ‘love is often blind'!]
v.15-17
Samson gives away the secret of his strength
v.15
Then
she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,' when you won't
confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of
me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength.”
v.16
With
such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to
death of it.
v.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.”
[Notes:
She continues nagging and eventually, instead of leaving her,
he gives way and tells her about being a Nazirite.]
v.18-22
Samson is taken
v.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.
v.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.
v.20
Then
she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He
awoke from his sleep and thought, “I'll go out as before and shake
myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord
had left him.
v.21
Then
the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down
to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding
grain in the prison.
v.22
But
the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
[Notes:
While he sleeps she cuts off his hair and his strength seems to
leave him. When the Philistines come, he is taken, blinded, manacled
and imprisoned. It looks like the end for him.]
v.23-31
The Death of Samson
v.23
Now
the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice
to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered
Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
v.24
When
the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our
god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
v.25
While
they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to
entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he
performed for them.
When
they stood him among the pillars,
v.26
Samson
said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel
the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against
them.”
v.27 Now
the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the
Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand
men and women watching Samson perform.
v.28
Then
Samson prayed to the Lord,
“Sovereign Lord,
remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let
me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
v.29
Then
Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple
stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one
and his left hand on the other,
v.30
Samson
said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all
his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the
people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while
he lived.
v.31
Then
his brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him.
They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol
in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.
[Notes:
The Philistines rejoice in their temple and bring Samson in to
entertain them. His hair has regrown and his strength been restored
so he stands between two pillar and, pushing them outwards, collapses
the temple on himself and the three thousand others in the temple.
The fourth and most successful time of killing Philistines.]