Judges 16:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And she said to him, "How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies."

NIV: Then she said to him, "How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength."

NASB: Then she said to him, 'How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.'

CSB: "How can you say, ‘I love you,’" she told him, "when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!"

NLT: Then Delilah pouted, 'How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!'

KJV: And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

NKJV: Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”

Samson's entire life is marked by weakness for women (Judges 14:16–17; 16:1). In Timnah, this involved a different woman and a different secret, but the tactic was the same. Then it was Samson's new bride who claimed he hated her since he wouldn't reveal the answer to his unfair riddle. He eventually gave in and told her, only to learn she was betraying him to the Philistines.

Now another woman is using the exact same tactic. He has resisted her to this point by simply lying about the source of his supernatural strength. In fact, he has made a game of it, allowing her to tie him up multiple times, even weaving fabric into his hair only to show that his strength was still with him (Judges 16:7–14). Each time, Samson probably assumed it was all in playful fun, allowing him to show off and entertaining his lover.

Unlike the other women Samson has known, however, Delilah truly has his heart. So, when she accuses him of lying when he tells her he loves her, it hurts. She says his heart is not truly with her, that he's abusing her by making fun of her requests. If Delilah were not lying (Judges 16:4–6) and genuinely loved Samson, this might be a fair complaint. Deep intimacy would suggest not keeping such secrets. On the other hand, if she loved him, it's unlikely she would be so transparently manipulative in her approach.

Samson isn't blind—yet (Judges 16:21)—so he could have considered the same facts. Yet he is deeply vulnerable to women. And this is the woman he sincerely loves. Each time she's asked for his secret, and taken advantage, nothing bad has happened—though he doesn't know there have been men waiting in case he really was weakened (Judges 16:9, 12). He continues to resist Delilah, but he begins to falter. He will eventually break, fully trusting her and assuming she'd never go as far as she does (Judges 16:16–19).

Judges 16:4–22 finds Samson falling in love with Delilah. In exchange for an outrageous sum of money, she agrees to seduce him so she can pass along the secret of Samson's strength to his Philistine enemies. This begins a pattern Samson probably thought was a lover's game, where he repeatedly lies about his secret. Eventually, however, he tells her the truth: shaving his head will make him weak. She has his head shaved as he sleeps and then turns him over to the Philistines, who gouge his eyes out and make him into a slave.

After escaping an ambush in the Philistine city of Gaza, Samson rips the city gates out and walks away with them. When he falls deeply in love with Delilah, Philistine nobles pay her a fortune to seduce Samson into revealing the secret of his strength. She eventually succeeds, shaving his head while he sleeps. The Philistines gouge out Samson's eyes and put him in prison in Gaza. He is put on display at a celebration for the Philistine idol Dagon. God grants a last moment of supernatural power in response to Samson prayer. Samson collapses the support beams of the temple, crushing himself along with thousands of Philistine leaders.

Samson's story began in chapter 14 and will end here. His time as a judge lasted twenty years (Judges 15:20), but Scripture records only a few major incidents from his life. No specific times are assigned to these events. Samson humiliates Gaza by ripping out the city gates with his bare hands. He then falls for Delilah, who finds out the secret of his strength and betrays him. The Philistines blind Samson and enslave him in a prison near Gaza. They then parade him around during a noblemen's celebration in the temple of Dagon. With power from the Lord, granted as a last request, Samson collapses the temple's support pillars. This kills everyone inside, including himself. This begins the process of Israel's liberation (Judges 13:5), which later men such as Samuel will complete (1 Samuel 7:11–14).

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).