Nalwendo

BIBLICAL CONTEXT

Delilah was a woman of Sorek.[2] She is the only woman in Samson's story who is named.[5] The Bible says that Samson loved her (Judges 16:4) but not that she loved him.[5] The two were not said to be married[5] and the idea that they had a sexual relationship is, in the words of Josey Bridges Snyder, "at most implicit in the biblical text".[6] The lords of the Philistines bribed her to discover the source of Samson's great strength, each offering to give her 1,100 silver coins.[2][7] Three times she failed.[2] First, at his own suggestion, she bound him with "seven green withes," but these he easily snapped asunder.[2] Then she tied him with new ropes: these also failed.[2] Then, she fastened the locks of his hair to the loom but with the same result.[2] Finally, after many complaints that Samson did not trust her, he told her that his strength lay in his hair.[2] Then, when he was asleep, she ordered a servant to cut Samson's hair.[5] She then awoke him, and delivered him into the hands of the waiting Philistine chiefs.[2] The Bible does not mention her fate,[8] and, as James D. G. Dunn and John William Rogerson note in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, it never discusses whether Delilah felt guilt for her actions.[9]