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                                 DELILAH

THE STORY OF DELILAH

Delilah is a play on the Hebrew word laylah, which means ‘night’; it can also mean ‘flirtatious’, or ‘inclined towards love’. The name may hint that Delilah worshipped a goddess of sexual love, and was a sacred prostitute (see the section on Tamar for an explanation of this role).

Samson means ‘the sun’.

Because their names mean 'night' and 'the sun', the story may have its origins in ancient mythological stories about the battle between night and day, the sun and the moon, darkness and light.

ON THIS PAGE:

What the story is about:

Delilah and the Philistine Lords

Delilah Questions Samson

Delilah Learns the Truth

Samson's Hair is Cut Off

The Settlement of Canaan

Women's Lives in this Era

Activities and Focus Questions

What the story is about:

The story of Delilah is an episode in the life of Samson, a hero of the Israelite people at the time of the Judges. (See end of this page for historical background to this story and information about women's lives.)
On the surface, the story condemned Delilah, and later generations saw her as an evil woman. However, a closer study of the story raises questions about the motives and behavior of both the main characters.

The story of Delilah contains four different episodes:

1 Delilah and the Philistine lords, Judges 16:4-5. Delilah was approached by the powerful Philistine lords who ordered her to help them.

2 Delilah questions Samson, Judges 16:6-14. Delilah attempted to find out the secret of Samson’s strength. He evaded her questions by giving her three false answers.

3 Delilah learns the truth, Judges 16:15-17. By persisting, Delilah found out the truth about Samson, that he was dedicated to God before he was born.

4 Samson’s hair is cut off, Judges 16:18-21. Delilah ordered a servant to cut off Samson’s hair while he slept.

The story describes the way that Delilah, a Philistine woman, discovered the secret of Samson’s strength, and sold  that secret to the Philistine lords.

A still from the film 'Samson and Delilah'

DELILAH AND THE PHILISTINE LORDS

Judges 16:4-5

The story of Delilah is set during the period of the Judges, when the Israelites were still attempting to gain a foothold in the land they had invaded.

‘After this Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver”.

Read Judges 16:4-5.

Delilah is introduced as a woman from the valley of Sorek, which in Hebrew means ‘vineyard valley’. It is about twenty kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. At the time of the story, it was held by the Philistines. She is not introduced as ‘the wife of….’ or ‘of the tribe of….’, and we are not told whether she was Israelite or Philistine. This is unusual. She may have been a courtesan, independent of either group; or an Israelite, disowned because of what happened to Samson. Perhaps the story-tellers took it for granted that she was a Philistine. We do not know for sure.

DELILAH QUESTIONS SAMSON

Judges 16:6-14

After the approach from the Philistine lords, Delilah set about finding the secret of Samson’s strength. Why was he so much stronger than other men? How could the Philistines curb that strength, and so protect themselves against Samson? She asked him this questions three times, Three times he lied to her.

‘Then Delilah said to Samson “You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound”. He said to her “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else”. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.’

Read Judges 16:6-14

The answers he gave have some significance. They suggest a superstitious belief in magic and sacred numbers:

• Answer 1: he could be held with seven fresh bowstrings; seven is a sacred number and fresh bowstrings made of unprocessed gut were not as strong as seasoned bowstrings. But they were new, unused, and in some cultures this gave them a special power.

• Answer 2: he could be held with a new rope; new rope is strong, but hardly stronger in reality than rope used once or twice before.

• Answer 3: he could be held if Delilah wove the seven strands of his hair into her loom. This was the strangest suggestion. It may have had magical associations for the people of Samson’s time.

Each time, when Delilah called out “The Philistines are upon you”, Samson immediately broke the bonds.

Delilah was asking him to trust her enough to reveal his own weakness, perhaps to let go of the need to be in control, but he was reluctant to do this. The story was told by someone with an insight into human psychology. Samson recognized her power over him, and struggled fruitlessly against it.

DELILAH LEARNS THE TRUTH

Judges 16:15-17

Ultimately, Delilah’s persistence paid off. Samson confessed to her that the secret of his strength was that he was a ‘nazir’.

‘Then she said to him: “How can you say ‘I love you’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.” So he told her his whole secret, and said to her “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.”’

Read Judges 16:15-17

A still from the film 'Samson and Delilah'

Being a ‘nazir’ meant that Samson had been consecrated to God at birth, had never drunk wine, and had let his hair remain unshaven throughout his life.

Soldiers who fought a ‘holy war’ often left their hair long -  this is hinted at in a previous description of soldiers in Deborah’s army (5:2). We know that ancient Greek soldiers going into battle unbound and tangled their long hair, to make them look more frightening.

Samson had to explain the customs of a Nazirite to Delilah, which suggests that she did not already know them. Had she been an Israelite, she would surely have been aware of them.

Delilah recognized the truth when she finally heard it. She did not need to test it, as she had in the previous three incidents. She sent a message to the Philistine lords.

SAMSON’S HAIR IS CUT OFF

Judges 16:18-21

The Philistine lords came, bringing the money promised to Delilah. That money would free her from economic bondage for the rest of her life. If she was a courtesan, it meant a new start for her.

‘She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him. Then she said “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free”. But he did not know that the Lord had left him.’

Read Judges 16:18-21.

Throughout this whole story, Delilah’s emotions are not mentioned. This omission dehumanizes her, as if she was detached from what was happening. But there is something very moving in the picture of Samson sleeping with his head in Delilah’s lap, unaware of the forces assembling against him. Unless she had good reason to hate all Israelites, Delilah must have felt some pity for him.

Samson believed that if his hair was cut, his superhuman strength would disappear, and it did. In the words of the story, ‘the Lord had left him’. We do not know the terms of the arrangement Delilah made with the Philistine lords, or what she expected would happen to Samson. In the context of the times, she probably expected a quick death for him, rather than the protracted torture which eventually followed his capture.

But in one of the most dramatic sentences in the Bible, Judges 16:22 gives an ominous glimpse of what is in store for the Philistines, as Samson’s hair began to grow back again - 'but the hair of his head began to grow again......'.

From that moment, we hear no more of  Delilah. Samson will kill himself and many people when he topples the building at the great celebration in honor of Dagon, a fertility god and patron of the city of Ashdod (Judges 16:23-31), but there is no mention of her. It seems likely that she was absent from this horrifying event. If she had been among the dead, this fact would surely have been noted.

THE SETTLEMENT OF CANAAN

Until the period of settlement in Canaan, the people of the Bible were called ‘Hebrews’. After settlement they were called ‘Israelites’.

The story of Delilah appears in the Book of Judges. This Book covers the years between the death of Joshua who succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelites, and the beginning of the kingships of Saul, David and Solomon.

It was a time of social turmoil. All over the Mediterranean and the Middle East, people and nations were on the move and the Hebrew tribes, coming up from Egypt, were among these migratory groups.

The land  they entered was already occupied by Canaanites and Philistines, who held the area now covered by Israel and Lebanon. These two groups governed the land, particularly the fertile plains and sea-ports, through a sophisticated system of city-states. The Israelite tribes attempted to gain a foothold in the sparsely populated, less fertile hill territories.

Archaeological research shows that their occupation of Canaan happened not by sudden conquest, as the Bible describes, but by gradual infiltration. The Canaanites and Philistines naturally resisted this intrusion, as the stories of Delilah and Samson show only too well. They were more technologically advanced than the Israelites, who for a long time had only a precarious hold on the territory. 

But over a period of time the Israelites gained control of the extreme north and south of the country. Jerusalem and the fertile plain of Esdraelon still remained under the control of the Canaanites, and the Philistines controlled the coastal area, particularly the five major cities on the southern coastal plain. 

A wooden plough, and an iron one: the iron
 plough was easier to use and more efficient

As they put down roots, the Israelites gave up their nomadic life. Instead of being wanderers, they became farmers and herders of animals. At this time (the beginning of the Early Iron Age), the following advances in technology were made:

• iron was introduced for household and farm tools, which was a major technological breakthrough; iron was harder, less likely to break than bronze, and blades would keep sharp for a longer time 
• stone-lined tanks or cisterns were built to conserve water during dry periods; this made agriculture and life in general more predictable
• terracing made it possible to farm hillsides that had previously been unsuitable for farming; it also solved problems of land erosion and soil loss.        

Canaanite bronze weapons like these were being superceded by iron weapons

All of this meant that

• land previously used for grazing of flocks became available for farming

• with improved farming techniques more food could be produced

• with more food, a larger population could be supported

• forests and scrub had to be cut down

• houses, barns and villages had to be built.

• more people were needed; land could not be held if it was not populated
• so women had to channel their energies into producing and looking after children.

As well as having large families, Israelite women made a substantial contribution to the economy. They planted, weeded and harvested crops. They processed grain, olives and fruit for storage - archaeological evidence (ancient jars, vats and silos) tells us that large quantities of food were stored each year. This storage was largely the responsibility of women.

The religious beliefs of the Israelite women reflected, in part, their growing reliance on agriculture as a way of life. They were attracted to the beliefs and practices of the Canaanites, which centered on the power of Nature and the fertility of all living things. Canaanite myths explained the cycle of annual seasons and the vagaries of water, sun, rain and wind.

It was natural that the forces of Nature should figure in their worship. Matters relating to fertility in Nature and in people were of major importance to the women, engrossed as they were with feeding and keeping their families safe. At this stage, the worship of Yahweh and of the Nature gods seems to have co-existed fairly peacefully. Only later would the prophets, proponents of the worship of a single god, speak angrily against veneration of any other deities.

For additional information on the lives of women in the Bible, see the links to 

ACTIVITIES AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

Retelling the Story

Delilah has traditionally been portrayed as a temptress who betrayed a hero. Write the story from Delilah’s point of view, covering points such as:

What Delilah knew about Samson before she met him (read previous sections   of the story to find out about Samson’s earlier relationships with women)

Their first meeting, and what she thought of him

Samson’s love for Delilah

Delilah’s reaction when she was approached by the Philistine lords

The reasons why she agreed to help them

Her attempts to find out about Samson’s strength

The scene when Samson finally told her the truth

Her emotions when the Philistines tortured Samson

What happened to Delilah after Samson was taken away.

Research

Using your library or the internet, find out about the lay-out and construction of a Philistine temple. You might start your research by using a search engine to find an example of a temple similar to the one described in Judges 16, excavated at Tell Q’asile, near Tel Aviv. It  had large wooden pillars supporting a large balcony on which many people could stand.  

Focus Questions
1. What are the most interesting moments in the story? Why do these particular moments appeal to me?

2. In the story, who speaks and who listens? Who acts? Who gets what they want? If you were in the story, which person would you want to be friends with? Which person would you want to avoid?

3. What is God's interaction with the main characters? What does this tell you about the narrator's image of God? Do you agree with this image?

4. What is happening on either side of the story, in the chapters before and after it? Does this help you understand what is happening?

5. The narrator/editor has chosen to tell some things and leave other things out. What has been left out of the story that you would like to know?

6. Are the characteristics and actions of the people in the story still present in the world? How is the story relevant to modern life, especially your own?

Minoan gold pendant with bees, from 1800-1600BC