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See new material on Delilah at BIBLE TOP TEN: BAD WOMEN THE STORY OF DELILAH Bible Study Resource:
Women of the Old Testament 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 page on Tamar at WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: 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: Delilah and the Philistine Lords
Activities and Focus Questions
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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. 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. For a short version of Delilah's story, see BIBLE MEN AND WOMEN: DELILAH ; for Samson, see BIBLE MEN AND WOMEN: SAMSON |
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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. |
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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:
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.
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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.
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.
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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. As a courtesan without the protection of a family or husband, she needed transportable wealth - usually coins or jewelry. See BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: JEWELRY for examples of the jewelry Delilah would have worn.
‘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. Or perhaps not.
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. |
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Above:
a reconstruction of a Philistine temple, based on excavations at Tel
Qasile, Israel
The short version of
Samson's life is at BIBLE
MEN AND WOMEN: SAMSON,
but see also BIBLE TOP
TEN: HEROES
and BIBLE TOP TEN:
WARRIORS. |
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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. A wooden
plough, and an iron one: the iron
At this time (the beginning of the Early Iron Age), the following advances in technology were made:
Canaanite bronze weapons like these were being superceded by iron weapons
All of this meant that
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WOMEN’S
LIVES IN THIS ERA
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. For the type of work that women did, see BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: WORK 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
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ACTIVITIES
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 looking at the layout
of the First Temple of Jerusalem - see the model of the First Temple
at BIBLE
ARCHITECTURE: JERUSALEM.
It seems to have been based on the design of Philistine temples, and may
have been built by Philistine workmen. One such temple was excavated at Tell
Q’asile, near Tel Aviv. It had wooden pillars supporting a
large balcony on which many people could
stand.
Focus Questions
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Minoan gold pendant with bees, from 1800-1600BC |
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_____________________________________________________________________ INTERESTING SITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions DELILAH
AS ONE OF THE BIBLE'S TOP TEN BAD WOMEN BORN TO
BE BAD: DELILAH'S STORY SHE
DONE HIM WRONG: SAMSON'S STORY WEALTH,
AND THE FREEDOM IT GAVE - THIS IS WHAT DELILAH WANTED SAMSON
AS ONE OF THE BIBLE'S TOP TEN WARRIORS SAMSON
AS A GREAT BIBLE HERO - THOUGH I DON'T SEE IT MYSELF
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Delilah - Bible Woman - Women of the
Old Testament; Bible Study Resource
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DELILAH
As
they put down roots, the Israelites gave up their nomadic life.
Instead of being wanderers, they became farmers and herders of
animals. To see how this altered their living condition, go to 
