aMeaning of parts of verse uncertain. The Gazites [learned]b[learned] Septuagint reads “were told.” that Samson had come there, so they gathered and lay in ambush for him in the town gate the whole night; and all night long they kept whispering to each other, “When daylight comes, we’ll kill him.”
But Samson lay in bed only till midnight. At midnight he got up, grasped the doors of the town gate together with the two gateposts, and pulled them out along with the bar. He placed them on his shoulders and carried them off to the top of the hill that is near Hebron.
Word-by-Word Analysis
וישכב
338
שמשון
696
עדחצי
182
הלילה
80
ויקם
156
בחצי
110
הלילה
80
ויאחז
32
בדלתות
842
שערהעיר
855
ובשתי
718
המזזות
465
ויסעם
186
עםהבריח
335
וישם
356
עלכתפיו
616
ויעלם
156
אלראש
532
ההר
210
אשר
501
עלפני
240
חברוןפ
346
Judges 16:4
Gematria: 1770
ויהיאחריכןויאהבאשהבנחלשרקושמהדלילה
After that, he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek, named Delilah.
The lords of the Philistines went up to her and said, “Coax him and find out what makes him so strong, and how we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless; and we’ll each give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
Samson replied, “If I were to be tied with seven fresh tendons that had not been dried,cdried For use as bowstrings. I should become as weak as an ordinary man.”
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויאמר
257
אליה
46
שמשון
696
אםיאסרני
372
בשבעה
379
יתרים
660
לחים
88
אשר
501
לאחרבו
247
וחליתי
464
והייתי
441
כאחד
33
האדם
50
Judges 16:8
Gematria: 3935
ויעלולהסרניפלשתיםשבעהיתריםלחיםאשרלאחרבוותאסרהובהם
So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh tendons that had not been dried. She bound him with them,
while an ambush was waiting in her room. Then she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Whereupon he pulled the tendons apart, as a strand of tow comes apart at the touch of fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, while an ambush was waiting in a room. And she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he tore them off his arms like a thread.
Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have been deceiving me all along; you have been lying to me! Tell me, how could you be tied up?” He answered her, “If you weave seven locks of my head into the web.”dSeptuagint adds “and pin it with a peg to the wall, I shall become as weak as an ordinary man. So Delilah put him to sleep and wove the seven locks of his head into the web.”
And she pinned it with a pegewith a peg Septuagint adds “to the wall.” and cried to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Awaking from his sleep, he pulled out the peg, the loom,floom Meaning of Heb. uncertain. and the web.
Then she said to him, “How can you say you love me, when you don’t confide in me? This makes three times that you’ve deceived me and haven’t told me what makes you so strong.”
Word-by-Word Analysis
ותאמר
647
אליו
47
איך
31
תאמר
641
אהבתיך
438
ולבך
58
אין
61
אתי
411
זה
12
שלש
630
פעמים
240
התלת
835
בי
12
ולאהגדת
449
לי
40
במה
47
כחך
48
גדול
43
Judges 16:16
Gematria: 2931
ויהיכיהציקהלובדבריהכלהימיםותאלצהוותקצרנפשולמות
Finally, after she had nagged him and pressed him constantly, he was wearied to death
and he confided everything to her. He said to her, “No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a nazirite to God since I was in my mother’s womb. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me and I should become as weak as an ordinary man.”
Sensing that he had confided everything to her, Delilah sent for the lords of the Philistines, with this message: “Come up once more, for he has confided everything to me.” And the lords of the Philistines came up and brought the money with them.
She lulled him to sleep on her lap. Then she called in someone else, and she had him cut off the seven locks of his head; thus she weakened himgweakened him Taking wattaḥel as equivalent to wattaḥal; cf. vv. 7, 11, and 17. and made him helpless: his strength slipped away from him.
She cried, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” And he awoke from his sleep, thinking he would break loosehloose Meaning of Heb. uncertain. and shake himself free as he had the other times. For he did not know that GOD had departed from him.
The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and shackled him in bronze fetters, and he became a mill slave in the prison.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויאחזוהו
49
פלשתים
860
וינקרו
372
אתעיניו
547
ויורידו
242
אותו
413
עזתה
482
ויאסרוהו
294
בנחשתים
810
ויהי
31
טוחן
73
בבית
414
האסירים
326
האסורים
322
Judges 16:22
Gematria: 1941
ויחלשערראשולצמחכאשרגלחפ
After his hair was cut off, it began to grow back.
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to make merry. They chanted,“Our god has delivered into our handsOur enemy Samson.”
iThis verse would read well after v. 25. When the people saw him, they sang praises to their god, chanting,“Our god has delivered into our handsThe enemy who devastated our land,And who slew so many of us.”
As their spirits rose, they said, “Call Samson here and let him dance for us.” Samson was fetched from the prison, and he danced for them. Then they put him between the pillars.
And Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let go of me and let me feel the pillars that the temple rests upon, that I may lean on them.”
Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were some three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson dance.
Then Samson called to GOD, “O Sovereign GOD! Please remember me, and give me strength just this once, O God, to take revenge of the Philistines, if only for one of my two eyes.”
Samson cried, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he pulled with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him when he lived.
His brothers and all his father’s household came down and carried him up and buried him in the tomb of his father Manoah, between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had led Israel for twenty years.