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The Beginning of the End
loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek,” not far from his birthplace.
Her name was Delilah, “the consumer.” Sorek’s vineyards were also
tempting to the wavering Nazirite who had already indulged in wine,
thus breaking another tie that bound him to purity and to God. The
Philistines determined to bring about his ruin through Delilah.
They did not dare try to seize him while he possessed his great
strength, but they were determined to learn the secret of his power.
So they bribed Delilah to discover and reveal it.
A Weak Woman Subdues a Strong Man
As the betrayer kept on questioning Samson, he deceived her by
saying that he would be as weak as other men if certain procedures
were tried. When she put the matter to the test, the cheat was discov-
ered. Then she accused him of falsehood: “How can you say, ‘I love
you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these
three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”
Three times Samson had the clearest evidence that the Philistines
had plotted with his charmer to destroy him; but she treated the
matter as a joke, and he blindly dismissed any fear.
Day by day a subtle power kept him by her side. Finally she
overcame him, and Samson told her the secret: “No razor has ever
come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my
mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and
I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
Delilah immediately sent a messenger to the lords of the
Philistines, urging them to come without delay. While the warrior
slept, the Philistines lopped off the heavy masses of his hair from
his head. Then Delilah called, “The Philistines are upon you, Sam-
son!” Waking up suddenly, he thought he would exert his strength
as before, but his powerless arms refused to obey him, and he knew
that “the Lord had departed from him.” Delilah began to annoy him
and cause him pain, thus testing him for his strength, because the
Philistines did not dare come near to him until they were fully con-
vinced that his power was gone. Then they seized him, put out both
his eyes, and took him to Gaza. There they bound him with chains
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in their prison house and confined him to hard labor.