Judges 16:1-7 - Samson is here!

16:1-3

We now come to the most famous part of the tale of Samson. The chapter begins with a vignette that reminds of Samson’s stupidity, his great strength, and the Philistines' fear of him and desire to get rid of him. Samson sees a prostitute and spends the night with her. Except possible right at the end, Samson never demonstrates any moral virtue. The people of Gaza surround the place, but decide to wait till morning in order to kill him. They probably reckoned that if they went into the house at night they would be easily beaten by Samson, being aware of his great strength. However, Samson got up in the middle of the night and took off the doors of the city, and carried them up to the top of a hill facing Hebron. This seems to be purely a demonstration of his strength, and a mocking of the people of Gaza.

16:4-7

We now come to the main act. Samson falls in love with Delilah. There is no mention of whether she was Jewish or a Philistine. Given the way things pan out, and Samson’s past form, I think she was probably a Philistine. The Philistine rulers offer her a lot of money if she will discover the secret of his great strength. They know that they have to deal with the issue of his strength in order to defeat him. So Delilah asks Samson to tell her the secret. Samson then spins her the first of three yarns, saying that if he is tied up with “seven fresh bowstrings” he will lose his power.