Judges 16:4 - Meaning and Application

The old saying, “A burnt child dreads the fire,” fits Samson well here. He had been more than once brought into great danger by his love for women, yet he took no warning. He had more strength than an ordinary man, but far less wisdom than a child, and this time he paid for it fully.

Solomon seems to point especially to Samson when he warns against sexual sin. Of a bad woman he says, “She has brought down many wounded, yes, many strong men have been slain by her” (Proverbs 7:26). He also says that the adulteress hunts for a precious life (Proverbs 6:26). The woman who ruined Samson is named Delilah, a shameful name, fitting for someone who uses sweet words and lies to bring harm and ruin to people who think they are being treated kindly.

First, we see Samson’s affection for Delilah, he loved her (Judges 16:4). Some think she was his wife, but if so, he would likely have brought her to his own home. Others think he was courting her with marriage in mind, but there is strong reason to believe this was sinful love, and that he was living in sexual sin with her. We do not know for certain whether she was an Israelite or a Philistine, but if she was an Israelite, which seems unlikely, she had the heart of a Philistine.

Second, the Philistine rulers worked with Delilah to betray Samson (Judges 16:5). They told her their purpose was to humble him, or weaken him. They did not plan to do him immediate harm, only to keep him from harming them. In fact, they seem to have been careful about their promise, because even when he was in their power, they did not kill him right away. They wanted to know where his great strength came from and how he could be bound. Perhaps they thought he carried some charm or magic that made him strong, and they believed that if they could find it, they could control him. They had already learned enough to know his weak spot, and now they hoped Delilah could uncover his secret for them. They promised her 1,100 pieces of silver from each ruler, 5,500 in all, a large sum worth more than 1,000 pounds sterling. She was bribed to betray the man she pretended to love. See how dreadful the love of money is as a root of evil. Our Lord Jesus was also betrayed by one he called a friend, and even with a kiss, for money. So it is no surprise if someone like Delilah, unchaste and immoral, is also dishonest.

Third, Samson kept putting Delilah off and held his secret for a long time. She kept asking where his great strength lay and how he could be bound and harmed (Judges 16:6). She acted as if she only wanted to satisfy her curiosity, and as if she thought no one could ever bind him except through her charm. When she pressed him, he first said he could be bound with seven fresh withes, or green cords (Judges 16:7). The test was tried, but it failed, because he broke the cords as easily as thread burned by fire (Judges 16:9). When she kept nagging him, he said that new ropes might bind him (Judges 16:10-11). That test also failed, because the ropes snapped from his arms like thread (Judges 16:12). When she kept urging him and blamed him for teasing her so long, he said that weaving the seven locks of his hair into the web would make a great change in him (Judges 16:13). This came closer to the truth than anything he had said before, but it still did not expose the full secret. Even then, his strength showed itself, and he carried off the pin of the beam and the web.

In all these trials, it is hard to say whether Samson’s weakness or Delilah’s wickedness is more shocking. Her constant pressure was cruel and dishonest. She lay beside him as if she loved him, while planning to hand him over to people who hated him to death. At the same time, Samson’s behavior was foolish beyond words. He kept talking with a woman he could plainly see was trying to harm him. He kept listening to such a shameless request, even after seeing men lying in wait for him in the room. He did not leave at once and refuse ever to return. Instead, he went back again and laid his head in the same lap that had so often been the place of danger, where he had already heard the cry, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” It is hard to imagine a man so blind in judgment, but sexual sin can take away a person’s understanding.

It is not easy to know what Samson meant by letting her test him so often. Some think he did not even know for sure where his strength was. But it seems he did know, because when he finally told her what would truly weaken him, the text says, “He told her all his heart.” Perhaps he thought he could play with her and turn it into a joke, or that he could confuse the men waiting for him and make fools of them. But he was deeply unwise not to leave as soon as he saw that he could not trust her.

At last he told her the full secret, and if that confession led to his ruin, he had only himself to blame. He had not kept his own heart from one who was plainly seeking his destruction. It is foolish to spread a net in front of a bird and expect it not to see it, yet Samson saw the net being laid and still walked into it. If he had not been blind before the Philistines later put out his eyes, he might have seen that he was being betrayed. Delilah means “consumer,” and she consumed him.

She kept teasing him and wore him down. She told him she would not believe he loved her unless he gave her what she wanted in this matter (Judges 16:15). Her point was, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not trust me with what is in your heart?” People who are deeply in love do not like having their love doubted. They will do almost anything rather than be thought insincere.

Delilah, Samson’s Philistine lover, took advantage of that weakness. Her complaint rested on a real truth, though she used it badly: only those who have our hearts truly have our love. It is empty flattery to say we love someone if our hearts are not really with them. How can we say we love our brother, whom we have seen, or God, whom we have not seen, if our hearts are not with him?

She kept after him day after day, and he grew so miserable that he had no peace with her (Judges 16:16). Why did he not simply leave her? Because he had been trapped by a love that was really lust. It had blinded him and made him careless. At last she won him over, and he told her everything in his heart (Judges 16:17).

God allowed Samson to fall into this foolish act as a punishment for giving himself to sexual sin. The angel who announced his birth said nothing about his great strength, only that he was to be a Nazirite, a person set apart for God, and that no razor was to touch his head (Judges 13:5). His strength came from his dedication to God, and especially from the Spirit of God working in him with power. In this way, his strength, which came by promise rather than by nature, pointed forward to the spiritual strength believers receive (Colossians 1:11, Colossians 1:29).

So the mark of his special calling was also the sign of his strength. If he lost that mark, he knew he was giving up his strength too. “If I am shaved, I will no longer be a Nazirite, and then my strength will be gone.” The fact that his bodily strength was tied to his hair, which could not naturally give him power, teaches us to value God’s appointed ways. We should expect his grace, and its lasting help, only as we use the means he has given us: the word, the sacraments, and prayer. In these fragile bodies, God places this treasure.