1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 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.” 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.
Where is Samson? Gaza! Gaza is one of the major Philistine cities in the Philistine country (See Map). It almost seems like Samson hasn’t learned from his mistakes. He is once again somewhere he shouldn’t be, doing things he shouldn’t be doing. We can see that the Philistines are ready to end him, but can’t quite catch up to him. Samson, however, knows how to taunt. He rips out the gate of their city and brings it toward Hebron (Judah).
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 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.”
Where is Samson? The Valley of Sorek is east of Ekron, another major city of the Philistines, and he is shacking up with another Philistine woman. This one, however, is hooked up with the Philistine leaders. They are concerned with Samson’s source of his strength, which tells us something very interesting about Samson: perhaps his strength isn’t evident. Perhaps he isn’t bursting with muscle. They can’t understand where this strength comes from and are prepared to pay handsomely for it. Delilah’s payment is massive: 1100 shekels from each of the rulers of the five major Philistine cities (Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, Ashkelon and Gath). The payment roughly equals 140 pounds of silver and is equivalent to the purchase of 275 slaves. In other words, this amount of money will set Delilah up for life.
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” 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.” 8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 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.
We see Delilah’s first attempt at learning about Samson’s great strength. But we also see something about Samson’s greatest relationship problem: he doesn’t trust the woman he supposedly loves enough to be truthful. This could be because he isn’t really in love with her. This relationship could again be based on beauty, which was the downfall of the first relationship with the Philistine woman from Timnah.
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.” 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.” 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.
Samson isn’t only being deceitful, but he is also playing with Delilah. After her treachery of the first botched attempt, he should have been out of there. But Samson doesn’t flee, he stays in the relationship and toys with her. This is a classic example of Samson relying on his own strength. In the wedding feast story (Judges 14:12-14), Samson relies on his own cunning to tell a riddle that he knows is impossible to solve. Here he is doing the same thing. He knows the riddle is impossible to solve; he’s the only one with the answer. Instead of running away from the situation, returning to Israel and learning from his mistakes, Samson continues to play with fire, remaining in the relationship and in the land of the Philistines.
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 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.
Samson goes a step further. He leaves the rope idea and moves to the vicinity of the truth. He is now at the hair, but is still playing. You see how Samson is slipping into sin, right? By relying on his own strength, Samson perilously keeps testing the waters. Again, Samson should have been out of there after the first time Delilah tricked him, but he has not fled.
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.” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. 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.”
Delilah cuts to the quick. She knows Samson has some feelings for her. So she attacks him there, at his weakest point, his heart, and continues to stab him there until he gives up. You’ll notice that Samson essentially falls into the same trap twice. He fell into the Philisitine woman from Timnah’s constant questioning the same way he falls to Delilah: he gets tired of the nagging. Keep in mind, though, that Samson started both of these situations and stayed in them far too long, until the situation blew up on him.
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. 20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
Delilah wastes no time in getting her job done. We can easily see that Delilah shows no love or kindness to Samson. She is there simply for the paycheck. He manipulates him, waits until he is asleep, then takes care of the hair.
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.
It is important to note that Samson awakes and realizes it is time to break free. Samson has had the Lord within from his youth. He has understood the Nazarite Vow through his parents. He has had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him powerfully, giving him great strength. He expects it to continue. But the hair is gone now. The Lord had departed. But is it simply because of the hair? Samson’s power isn’t in his hair, but in his relationship with the Lord. By Samson’s hair being cut, he has broken the final part of his vow. We can see, through the entire story, that Samson has been working against God. He broke the vow of grapes (by being around a vineyard and at the wedding feast), and touching a dead body (lion carcass). Here his adverse relationship is complete. You see, Samson expected God to show up at times he was in need. But Samson never sought the holiness the vow required. By the breaking of the final vow, The Spirit of the Lord leaves, not because God is in the hair, but in the relationship. 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. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
A few important things happen here. Since the Spirit of the Lord left him, Samson is reduced to an ordinary man. But that is not all: 1. Eyes gouged out-Samson’s sight got him in trouble in the first place. It was what he saw (The Philistine Woman) that first began all the trouble. 2. Bronze shackles- Samson wanted the freedom to stroll through the land of the Philistines without consequence. Now his freedom is gone. 3. Grinding Grain- Samson has to contribute to the very thing destroyed (Judges 15:3-15)
All of his strength and freedom, the very things that Samson chose to set his foundation on, were taken away in one swoop. Because Samson didn’t flee from temptation and operate with his own source of strength, it was eventually obliterated. But this is not without hope: his hair begins to grow back. We can see this as foreshadowing or God’s future grace, but we can also see this in the context of the Nazarite Vow. If a person takes the vow and partway through is guilty of breaking one of the vows, the head is shaved and he is reset at the beginning. This is evidence of restoration for Samson, another chance to fulfill his vow fully with God at the center.
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.” 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.” 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.
Notice that the rulers of the Philistines, most likely from all five cities, have assembled to see Samson. Samson has been a thorn in the side of the Philistines for twenty years and there have been attempts to bring him down. But he was able to avoid capture as he played in their land, killed its people, took its women. Finally they have captured him, this fine trophy, and they give thanks to their god Dagon, the great fish/grain god of the Philistines.
When they stood him among the pillars, 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.” 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. 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.” 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, 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.
In this final part of the story, Samson has lost everything. His eyes, freedom, strength are all gone. he cannot rely on himself any longer, but must turn his attention, once again, back to God. His plea isn’t one of complete understanding, but he does have faith in God in this moment. He is still after revenge, but his reliance on God for this works towards God’s Will toward the Philistines. God provides him this last request, and in one cataclysmic feat he brings down the temple and destroys the hierarchy of the Philistines. This doesn’t mean that the Philistines are gone, though. Moving forward in time, the Philistines are very much in the mix until David finally defeats them. But Samson’s job wasn’t to destroy the Philistines, but to “Lead the way” in destroying the Philistines. Samson’s story is a tragic one. He could have been used in a much more vital way, but chose his own way over God’s. In this, God still used Samson, despite his sin, not because of it. If Samson had lived up to his vow and followed God, there’s no telling what greater blessing he could have been to his people.
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.
Samson’s body is recovered and buried in his father’s tomb. Israel showed him respect- which they did not show druing his life- for what he did rather than leave him in disgrace.