Judges 16

Shimshon whores at Gaza, then takes its gates

1

And Shimshon went to Gaza, and saw there a woman, a whore,¹ and ‹came in› unto her.

2

To the Gazathites it was said,² “Shimshon has ‹come in›³ hither.”⁴ And they surrounded⁵ and ‹lay in wait› for him all the night in the gate of the city, and were silent all the night, saying, “Until the light of morning, and we shall slay him.”

3

And Shimshon lay until the half-night,⁶ and ·he rose in the half-night and seized⁷ the doors of the gate of the city, and the two doorposts, and ‹pulled them forth›⁸ with the bar, and set them upon his shoulder, and ascended them unto the head of the mount, upon⁹ the face of Hebron.

Delilah and the Philistines seek Shimshon’s secret

4

And it was, after this, and he loved a woman in the wadi¹⁰ Sorek,¹¹ and her name was Delilah.¹²

5

And the Axles¹³ of the Philistines ascended unto her and said to her, “Guile¹⁴ him, and see in what is his big¹⁵ power,¹⁶ and in what we may have ability unto him¹⁷ and bind him to afflict¹⁸ him, and we shall give to thee, each man, eleven hundred silver.”¹⁹

6

And Delilah said unto Shimshon, “Tell, pray, to me: in what is thy big power, and in what couldst thou be bound to afflict thee?”

7

And Shimshon said unto her, “If they bind²⁰ me in seven fresh²¹ ties²² that have not been dried, and I would ail,²³ and be as one of adam.”²⁴

8

And they ascended to her, the Axles of the Philistines, seven fresh ties that had not been dried, and she bound him in them,

9

and the ‹liers-in-wait› were dwelling²⁵ with her²⁶ in the chamber, and she said unto him, “Philistines are upon thee Shimshon!” And he ‹tore apart› the ties as that a cord of the shakings²⁷ is ‹torn apart› in its smelling fire; and his power was not known.

10

And Delilah said unto Shimshon, “Lo, thou has messed²⁸ with me, and speakest unto me lies. Now tell, pray, to me: in what couldst thou be bound?”

11

And he said unto her, “If they binding bind me in new twinings²⁹ that have done in them no work,³⁰ and I would ail, and be as one of adam.”

12

And Delilah took new twinings and bound him in them and said unto him, “Philistines are upon thee Shimshon!” And the ‹liers-in-wait› were dwelling in the chamber. And he tore them from upon his arms as unto a thread.

13

And Delilah said unto Shimshon, “Until hither³¹ thou has messed with me, and speakest unto me lies. Tell to me: in what couldst thou be bound?” And he said unto her, “If thou weavest the seven braids³² of my head with the warp,³³ [and hammer them into the wall with the peg, and I would ail, and be as one of adam.

14

And it was that he slept, and Delilah took the seven braids of his head and wove them into the warp,]³⁴ and she drove it with the peg³⁵ and ·she said unto him, “Philistines are upon thee Shimshon!” And he awoke from his sleep and ‹pulled forth›³⁶ the peg of the loom³⁷ and the warp.

Shimshon tells his secret

15

And she said unto him, “How sayest thou, ‘I love thee,’ and thine heart is not with me? These three times thou hast messed with me, and not told to me in what is thy big power.”

16

And it was that she pressed³⁸ him with her words all the days, and hectored³⁹ him, and his lifebreath became shortened⁴⁰ to death,⁴¹

17

and he told to her all his heart, and said unto her, “A razor⁴² shall not ascend upon mine head, in that a separated⁴³ of God am I from the belly of my mother. If I were shaved, my power would ‹turn aside› from me, and I would ail, and be as all adam.”

18

And Delilah saw that he had told to her all his heart, and she ‹sent forth› and called for the Axles of the Philistines to say, “Ascend this time, in that he hath told to me all his heart.” And the Axles of the Philistines ascended unto her, and ascended the silver in their hand.

19

And she ‹made him sleep› upon her knees,⁴⁴ and ·she called for a man, and ·she shaved the seven braids of his head, and ·she started to afflict him, and his power⁴⁵ ‹turned aside› from upon him;

20

and she said, “Philistines are upon thee Shimshon!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I shall ‹go forth› as time by time, and shake myself loose.”⁴⁶ And he knew not that Yahweh had ‹turned aside› from upon him.

Shimshon imprisoned in Gaza

21

And the Philistines seized⁴⁷ him and ·they bored out his eyes and ·they descended him to Gaza and ·they bound him in bronzes,⁴⁸ and he was grinding⁴⁹ in the house of bondage.⁵⁰

22

And the hair of his head started to sprout as soon as⁵¹ he was shaved.

23

And the Axles of the Philistines gathered to slaughter a big slaughtering⁵² to Dagon their god, and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given into our hand Shimshon our enemy.”⁵³

24

And the people saw him, and ·they praised their god, in that, they said, “Our god hath given into our hand our enemy, and he that ‹dried up›⁵⁴ our land and that multiplied our pierced.”

25

And it was, in that their heart was good, and they said, “Call for Shimshon and he shall entertain⁵⁵ us.” And they called for Shimshon from the house of bondage, and he entertained before their face, and they stood him between the pillars.⁵⁶

26

And Shimshon said unto the lad ‹holding onto›⁵⁷ his hand, “Repose⁵⁸ me, and let me feel the pillars that the house is established upon, and I shall lean upon them.”⁵⁹

27

And the house was full⁶⁰ of men and women, and all the Axles of the Philistines were there and upon the roof,⁶¹ as unto three thousand⁶² men and women that were looking⁶³ on as Shimshon entertained.

28

And Shimshon called unto Yahweh and said, “Lord Yahweh, remember me pray, and strengthen me pray, just this time O God, and I be avenged, one avenging⁶⁴ for my two eyes, from the Philistines.”

Shimshon’s death

29

And Shimshon clasped⁶⁵ the two middle pillars that the house was established upon, and leaned⁶⁶ upon them, one with his ‹right hand› and one with his left,

30

and Shimshon said, “Let my lifebreath⁶⁷ die with the Philistines,” and he stretched out with power, and the house fell upon the Axles and upon all the people that were in it. And those who died that he ‹put to death› in his death were more abundant than that ‹which he put to death› in his life.

31

And his brothers descended, and all the house of his father, and bore him up and ascended him and buried him between Tsorah and between Eshta’ol, in the burialground of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

a woman, a whore (isshah zona). Perhaps even more literally, “a whoring woman,” since zona is a verb. But this seems likely to confuse, and doesn’t follow the Hebrew word order, so in my view does not represent the character of God’s word as accurately. ↩
To the Gazathites it was said. Alt. “And it was told to the Gazathites, saying.” I am following the received text as best I can, but it is probably missing a verb here; other ancient sources add it. ↩
come in (bo). The parallel between this word in verse 1 and 2 implies that Shimshon is whoring with Gaza itself. He has fallen into the same sin as Israel, whoring with the nations. ↩
hither (hennah). Hebrew has multiple words to refer to “this place;” I translate poh as “here” and hennah as “hither.” ↩
surrounded (savav). The verb means, essentially, to go in a circle, and is the same term used to describe Israel’s enemies “around” them (e.g., Judges 8#34); but to say the Philistines “went around” Shimshon obviously has the wrong import in English. Presumably they surrounded the town itself, with the chief ambush in the gate, where he was most likely to pass through. ↩
the half-night (chatsi halayla). I.e., midnight. ↩
seized (achaz). There is perhaps a subtle pun here, which becomes poignantly ironic in verse 21, in that achaz is also the root of chidah, the “riddle” of chapter 14. ↩
pulled them forth (nasa’). An idiom used often to mean “to remove from here” or “to journey,” from the act of pulling up tent pegs. ↩
upon (al). Or before, beside, over. ↩
wadi (nachal). Not a river (nahar), but a torrent-valley through which water primarily flows in the rainy season. “Wadi” may refer to the river itself, or the valley, as it does here, which correlates precisely with how scripture uses nachal. ↩
Sorek. “Red,” particularly of grapes; hence the typical meaning of “Choice Vine;” cf. Isaiah 5:2; 16:8; Jeremiah 2:21. This episode is a broken mirror of the initial story in chapter 14, in which Shimshon also comes paradoxically into a place associated with wine production (Judges 14#5). The wadi Sorek was Israelite territory, and functioned as a natural boundary between the Mediterranean coastal plain where the Philistines had settled, in the south-west, and the hills of Dan to the east and north. Tsorah and Eshta’ol, where Shimshon was raised, are on its northern edge, opposite the valley to Beyt Shemesh, the House of the Sun. Timnath, too, is in close proximity, with Gaza to the south on the Mediterranean coast. This is still clear on a modern map, courtesy of Wikipedia. The wadi Sorek is almost certainly the path taken by the milch-cows bearing the ark of the covenant back to Israel from Ekron to Beyt Shemesh in 1 Samuel 6, which happened around the same time as the events of Judges 15. ↩
Delilah. From a root meaning to dangle, specifically with the connotation of hanging feebly, being languid or weak. Curiously, it is once in Song 7:5 used of locks of hair, and in Isaiah 38:12 of part of the loom. It’s possible we are also meant to detect in delylah a pun on layelah, “night,” given the contrast with shimshon, “sunny.” Shimson is descending into darkness, first spiritually, then physically via the loss of his eyes. ↩
Axles (seren). This appears to be a Philistine loan-word, used exclusively as a proper noun for the five overlords who ruled the city-states of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod and Gath—except for in 1 Kings 7:30, where it means the axle of a chariot. The idea is simple enough: the autocrats of these city-states are the axles around which their whole societies turn: they are the centers that hold their cultures together as battle-worthy “chariots.” Since this is an extremely intuitive metaphor, symbolically cognate with the well-known concept of the axis mundi, I have chosen to translate it literally rather than use an arbitrary English replacement, like the traditional “lord.” ↩
Guile. See note on Judges 14#15. ↩
big (gadol). I resist translating gadol as “great,” even though sometimes this produces childish-sounding renderings, because it is such a general-purpose word and really does refer to bigness of any kind. ↩
power (koah). Trad. “strength,” but in my view Young and Alter are correct that the uses of this word are better captured with “power.” ↩
have ability unto him. Or, “have ability against him.” Literally “be able unto him.” ↩
afflict (’anah). Cf. Exodus 1:11–12; 3:7. ↩
And the Axles of the Philistines…eleven hundred silver. Two details indicate that Delilah is an Israelite, not a Philistine as commonly supposed: the Axles “ascend” to her, coming “out of Egypt” so to speak, up to Israel; and they offer her an enormous sum of money as a bribe, 5,500 shekels, corresponding to around 30 kg (66 lb) of silver—about 550 times the average annual income at the time, so approximately $15 million. Had she been a Philistine, probably such a large sum would be unnecessary, but an Israelite may need to be coaxed to ignore her loyalty to her people. Nonetheless, by placing her on the border between Israelite and Philistine territory (not that the Philistines were entitled to it; cf. 1 Samuel 7:14), Delilah is depicted as a “fringe” element, a liminal figure with no clear identity, much like Israel itself right now. ↩
they bind. The verb is in the third person masculine plural. Shimshon does not say, “If thou bindest me,” which would be the logical response to a single speaker. He seems to clearly discern what Delilah is really asking, and why, but 20 years of God’s favor has made him presumptuous about his invulnerability. ↩
fresh (lach). Or “green,” in the sense of something not yet dried, but these cords were probably made from animal tendons, not plant fibers, and certainly were not green in color. Alter says, “moist thongs.” ↩
ties (yeter). This generally refers to the cables used to hold the tabernacle together; in the poetic literature it refers generally to either tent cords or bowstrings. Both were often made with animal tendons, so fresh ones would be very difficult to break. ↩
ail (chalah). This typically refers to sickness, but more generally connotes feebleness; “ail” gets much closer in English than the traditional “weak.” ↩
as one of adam (k’achad ha-adam). I.e., as a human. See note on Genesis 1#26. Young takes the sense as, “one of the human race.” However, descent from Adam often connotes more than mere humanity; it implies also fallenness and weakness. The first man became a living soul; the last adam a life-giving spirit. The root of adam is adamah, “ground.” The point Shimshon is making has theological depth: he is more powerful than earth-men because he is not an earth-man; he is a sky-man—a sun-man, a fire-man, a Spirit-man. If he were to lose Yahweh’s spirit, however, he would revert to being a man of dirt, with no more power than dirt can provide. ↩
dwelling (yashav). This word does extraordinary duty in a broad range of situations. Here we should probably read it as something like “lurking.” ↩
with her. Literally “for her” or “to her.” ↩
shakings (ne’oret). Trad. “tow,” which is technically correct but obscures the inversion that takes place in verse 20. These “shakings” are the course, broken fibers that are shaken out of flax when it is beaten and crushed (scutched) to separate out the long fibers used for spinning linen yarn. ↩
messed (hatal). The head of this word is Genesis 31:7, where Jacob tells Rachel and Leah, “Your father hath messed with me,” changing his pay ten times. This is traditionally translated “deceived,” but obviously could equally mean “mocked.” Then in Exodus 8:29, Moses describes Pharaoh as messing with the people by not letting them go, which again indicates both deception and contempt. Later uses vary between denoting deception and mockery; the next use after Judges is when Eliyahu (Elijah) messes with the priests of Ba’al (1 Kings 18:27); in Psalm 137:3 (“by the rivers of Babylon”) the root talal is used in verse 3, where Israel’s captors required of them songs, “and those who messed with us, mirth.” The English word “tease” approaches the meaning, but is simply too weak, having a connotation of playfulness; thus I have been compelled to use an idiom that captures the Hebrew meaning quite well. ↩
twinings (’avot). See note on Judges 15#13. Shimshon really is messing with her and the Philistines, in that this is exactly what the Judahites bound him with—but I suppose there was no one left alive to report this to the Philistines afterward. ↩
work (melakhah). Cf. Exodus 20#9. ↩
until hither (’ad hennah). I.e., “up till now.” ↩
braids (machlaphah). From chalaph, “to change;” i.e., to plait, changing one strand over the other. ↩
warp (massekhet). Or “web.” This refers to the yarn stretched lengthwise on the loom, into which the horizontal weft (or woof) is then woven. ↩
and hammer them…into the warp. These clauses are absent in the received text, which Alter states confidently is “manifestly incomplete.” Other translators are less sure, and many Bibles omit these lines. The LXX A and B both include them. If only one or the other did, I would think perhaps the Greek translator was trying to “fix” the Hebrew text for clarity; but the presence in A and B does suggest to me that these lines are original to the Hebrew. Moreover, the clauses immediately following are somewhat incomprehensible without this additional information. I have thus added them in brackets, to indicate that I am not 100% sure. ↩
drove it with the peg. The nexus of words here clearly alludes back to Judges 4#21 and Judges 5#26. ↩
pulled forth (nasa’). Cf. verse 3. ↩
loom (ereg). Or “weaver,” but the object is the weaving device, not the weaving person. The root here is the same as the word translated “weavest” and “wove” in verses 13–14. ↩
pressed (tsuq). Cf. Judges 14#17. ↩
hectored (alats). This word appears only here in scripture, so I have chosen one that is rarely used in English also, and has the closest consonantal similarity. Alter says “badgered,” which I like, but badgers are mentioned in Leviticus 11:5 in some translations, and alats has nothing to do with animals. ↩
lifebreath became shortened. See note on the same phrase in Judges 10#16. ↩
to death (lamut). In English we would say he was sick to death of her pestering him. ↩
razor (morah). See note on Judges 10#5. ↩
separated (nazir). See note on Judges 10#5. ↩
sleep upon her knees. This is a euphemism: she had sex with him and he fell asleep. See note on “grinding” in verse 21. However, cf. also the repetition of the kneeling motif in Judges 5#27, of which this event becomes a dark mirror. ↩
power. Had I a maximalist rather than minimalist philosophy regarding capitalization, this would say “Power,” since the next verse clearly indicates it is synonymous with Yahweh. ↩
shake myself loose (na’ar). Cf. verse 9; there is an ironic inversion in that Shimshon expected to shake off whatever confronted him as unto the shakings of flax, but now he himself is as weak as those shakings in comparison to his foes. ↩
seized (achaz). Cf. verse 6. ↩
bronzes (nechoshet). This is the bronze-age equivalent of “putting him in irons.” The Hebrew only uses the dual form of nechoshet, indicating two “bronzes,” without supplying any further noun; we are left to imagine chains, shackles, or fetters of some kind. (Contra the traditional “brass,” the word is properly bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin; brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, was unknown to the ancient near East.) ↩
grinding (tachan). There is a dual symbolic irony to this: firstly, whereas Shimshon had previously destroyed their harvests in righteousness, now he processes them because of his unrighteousness; secondly, whereas previously they had plowed with his heifer, now he has ground with their whores, and so is given over to more grinding. Job 31:10 says, “Let my woman grind to another, and upon her let others kneel.” To grind and to kneel are both sexual metaphors. This also casts light on the odd description of Delilah making Shimshon “sleep upon her knees” in verse 19. There is a further irony and humiliation in that grinding was woman’s work. ↩
bondage (asar). Not “prison-house;” this is the plural participle of the same word translated “bound” in the previous clause, and could equally be translated “house of bindings” or “house of the bound,” though these options seem needlessly confusing. ↩
as soon as (kasher). Literally, “as that,” but I agree with Alter that the sense is the hair started to immediately regrow, and this simply isn’t conveyed in English with a literal translation. ↩
slaughtering (zevach). This is not Hebrew intensification like “dying die,” but rather a verb and a noun, which more traditionally could be translated “sacrifice a big sacrifice.” The verb zavach and the noun zevach, however, properly mean not sacrifice, but slaughter, and abstracting these terms into “sacrifice” considerably skews the meaning of the text. ↩
enemy (oyev). The head of this word is the “enmity” of Genesis 3:15. ↩
dried up (machariv). The root is the same word used in verses 7 and 8. ↩
entertain (sachaq). The lexicons all say that this properly means laughter; i.e., the Philistines wanted Shimshon to make them laugh. However, surveying scripture’s use of the word, this only appears true in the poetic literature. What it means here (the first place it appears) is better captured by our word “entertainment.” Cf. 1 Samuel 18:7, the where women sing as they “entertain” by playing on instruments; 2 Samuel 2:14 where Abner bids Yoab have the young men “entertain” them, and 2 Samuel 6:5, where David “entertains” Yahweh. While “merriment” might certainly be in view in these passages, laughter is quite a stretch for some. ↩
pillars (’ammud). The word is connected to “stand,” ’amad, but unfortunately this cannot be translated. Dynamically we could say “they posted him between the posts,” but I translate natsav as post, so this would create a false connection to Judges 3#22. ↩
holding onto (chazaq). Or “strengthening.” The same root is used in verse 28. ↩
Repose (yanach). The proliferation of translation choices here suggests to my mind a lack of imagination. The word really means to lay something down, and thus to let it go or leave it; the head is Genesis 2:15, where God in most translations “puts” Adam in the garden to guard and serve it; and it has a clear connotation of rest (cf. Genesis 8:4, 9, 21). It is also used of God “leaving” the nations in the land without driving them out too quickly (Judges 2:23; 3:1). All these senses are captured by the word “repose,” with the only difficulty being that it is grammatically incorrect, being a purely reflexive verb. But English is infinitely malleable, and may be reshaped according to God’s word. In scripture, then, repose is not always reflexive. Tada! ↩
Repose me…lean upon them. The traditional translation of this dialog is strangely awkward, perhaps partly because of translators’ allergy to translating waw as “and,” and perhaps partly because they take “lean” here to imply Shimshon leaning his strength into the pillars. But the lad would hardly cooperate with destroying the temple, given that this would end his own life. What Shimshon is actually saying is simply, as it were, “It’s OK, you can let me go if you guide me to the pillars; then I can lean on them instead of you.” ↩
full (mala). The vast majority of uses of prior to this are in Numbers 7, referring to how the various spoons and platters were full of incense or flour. ↩
there and upon the roof, as unto. Most translations place the comma after “there,” and it is possible I am missing something, but Hebrew does not have punctuation, and it is extremely unlikely that three thousand people would fit on the roof (see note below). ↩
three thousand. This is an extraordinary number, and the Philistine temples so far excavated would not accommodate nearly so many, being only about 8×5 meters (26×48 feet; see e.g., Samson Destroys the Temple of Dagon). Even the lower floor of a building this size could not contain more than about 1200 people crammed together very tightly (see e.g., 7.3 Billion People, One Building — Wait But Why); presumably the roof would hold considerably fewer, being open in the center to form a promenade from which people could see the ground floor. The temple at Gaza, then, would have had to have been much larger than the ones so far discovered. This is certainly possible, but it may also be that the number is meant to be taken symbolically, with the emphasis on the three (as it has been throughout Shimshon’s story): a “great group” three times repeated. I am very cautious to assert this, however, as a hermeneutic that interprets historical details as purely prophetic imagery has no guardrails to avoid the logical conclusion that none of them ever have actually happened (cf. most “scholars” on Jonah). LXX-B has “seven hundred” here, but this would defy the statement in verse 30 that he killed more people in death than in life. ↩
looking (ra’ah). Lit. “seeing,” but the semantic range in Hebrew extends beyond what is tolerable in English. ↩
one avenging. I.e., one act of vengeance. ↩
clasped (laphat). A very rare word, used only here, Ruth 3:8 where it means to twist oneself, and Job 6:18 where it means to turn aside. ↩
leaned (samak). This is a different word to the one in verse 26, but English has insufficient synonyms. Samaq is used repeatedly in Leviticus for leaning (trad. “laying”) one’s hand upon a sacrifice before slaughtering it. ↩
lifebreath (nephesh). Or “soul.” ↩