Judges 16:13

_AND DELILAH SAID UNTO SAMSON, HITHERTO THOU HAST MOCKED ME, AND TOLD ME LIES: TELL ME WHEREWITH THOU MIGHTEST BE BOUND. AND HE SAID UNTO HER, IF THOU WEAVEST THE SEVEN LOCKS OF MY HEAD WITH THE WEB._ If thou weavest the seven locks of my head - braids or tresses, into which, like many in the East who wore long hair, he chose to plait his hair. It appears from the Egyptian monuments that two sorts of looms were anciently used for weaving-the horizontal loom, at which men worked; the upright loom, which was chiefly employed by women. Of this description was that into which Delilah entwined the seven locks of Samson's hair. It was of a very simple construction: the woof was driven into the warp, not by a reed, but by a wooden spatula; the extremity of the web was fastened to a pin or stake fixed in the wall or ground; and while Delilah sat squatting at her loom in a recess of the chamber,...

4-17 Samson had been more than once brought into mischief and danger by the love of women, yet he would not take warning, but is again taken in the same snare, and this third time is fatal. Licentiousness is one of the things that take away the heart. This is a deep pit into which many have fallen; but from which few have escaped, and those by a miracle of mercy, with the loss of reputation and usefulness, of almost all, except their souls. The anguish of the suffering is ten thousand times greater than all the pleasures of the sin....

Verse Judges 16:13. _THE SEVEN LOCKS OF MY HEAD_] Probably Samson had his long hair plaited into _seven divisions_, and as his vow of a Nazarite obliged him to _wear his hair_, so, _seven_ being a number of perfection among the Hebrews, his hair being divided into _seven_ _locks_ might more particularly point out the _perfection_ designed by his _Nazarite state_. Every person must see that this verse ends abruptly, and does not contain a full sense. Houbigant has particularly noticed this, and corrected the text from the _Septuagint_, the reading of which I shall here subjoin: Εαν ὑφανῃς τας ἑπτα σειρας της κεφαλης μον αυν τῳ διασματι, και εγκρουσῃς τῳ πασσαλῳ εις τον τοιχον, και εσομαι ὡς εἱς των ανθρωπων ασθενης· Και εγενετο εν τῳ κοιμασθαι αυτον, και ελαβε Δαλιδα τας ἑπτα σειρας της κεφαλης αυτου, και ὑφανεν

EXPOSITION JUDGES 16:1 THEN. It should be and. There is nothing to show when the incident occurred. It may have been many years after his victory at hal-Lechi, towards the latter part of his twenty years' judgeship. GAZA, now _Ghuzzeh_,_ _one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, once a strong place, but now a large open town. It was the last town in South-West Palestine on the road from Jerusalem to Egypt (Acts 8:26, Acts 8:27). It played an important part in history in all ages—in the times, of the Pharaohs, the Seleucidae, the Maccabees, the Romans, the Khalifs, and the Crusaders. It was within the limits of the tribe of Judah ...

AND DELILAH SAID UNTO SAMSON,.... At another time, when she thought it most proper to upbraid him with his deception of her: HITHERTO THOU HAST MOCKED ME, AND TOLD ME LIES; both the times that she had solicited him to impart the secret of his strength to her: TELL ME WHEREWITH THOU MIGHTEST BE BOUND; tell me the real truth, and deceive me no more: AND HE SAID UNTO HER, IF THOU WEAVEST THE SEVEN LOCKS OF MY HEAD WITH THE WEB; it seems that Samson's hair was parted into seven locks, which no doubt hung down very long; and now he tells her, that if these were interwoven with the warp which was upon the beam in a loom near by; perhaps in the same room, where Delilah used to weave, as was the custom of those times, and in various nations a; his strength would be weakened; for Braunius b is mistaken in supposing this to be the beam about which the web was rolled, as he is also in the pin ne...

CHAPTER 16 DELILAH, AND SAMSON _ 1. In Gaza (Judges 16:1)_ 2. Delilah and her victory over him (Judges 16:4) 3. The captive of the Philistines (Judges 16:21) 4. The feast of Dagon and Samson's death (Judges 16:22) Down he goes again, and this time to Gaza, the Philistine stronghold. There he unites himself with a harlot. We are here reminded of the history of the Church. The harlot typifies that system which in Revelation is called by the same name, she who seduces to commit fornication, Babylon the great, Rome. Rome is the capital of Philistinism, ritualistic Christendom, as Gaza was the capital of the

SAMSON AND DELILAH. It was quite near his own home, in the Vale of Sorek (Grape Valley), that the Philistines, a ided by the woman who had him in thrall, ultimately got the giant under their power. A ruined site near Zorah is still called Sû rî k. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway now runs through the valley. The meaning of Delilah is unknown: perhaps it was a Philistine word, as the term for lords or tyrants (_seren,_ pl. _sarnç_) certainly was. Delilah was to receive £ 150 from each of the five for the betrayal of her lover. Judges 16:7. Instead of withes, or flexible twigs, read seven cords of fresh sinews, _i.e._ moist gut; Moore has bowstrings. Seven was first a magical and then a sacred number (_cf._ Judges 16:13)....

TELL ME. Some codices, with one early printed edition, and Septuagint add "I Pray thee". WITH THE WEB. Note the _Homoeoteleuton._ In the primitive text these words were probably followed by "and fasten them with. pin". For the Septuagint adds "I shall be as another man. And it came to pass that when he was asleep that Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them with the web, and she fastened them with. pin". Ginsburg suggests that some ancient scribe, in copying the first words, "fasten them with. pin", carried his eye back to these last words, and omitted the whole of this clause, which has been preserved in the Septuagint....

_Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end_ 4 _.the valley of Sorek_ Now Wâdi eṣ-Ṣarâr, a broad valley narrowing as it rises towards the Judaean highlands; the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem ascends the lower part of it. _Soreḳ_denotes a choice kind of vine (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21), which may have given its name to the valley. A ruined site near Ṣar-a (Judges 13:2 _n._) is still called Sûrîk....

IF THOU WEAVEST THE SEVEN LOCKS OF MY HEAD WITH THE WEB— The LXX render the passage thus: If thou shalt weave the locks of my head, and shalt fasten them with a pin in the wall, I shall be deprived of my strength, and become like other men, Judges 16:14. When he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head which she wove into a web, and fastened it with a pin to the wall. Then she cried, &c. See Spencer de Leg. Heb. lib. 3: cap. 6. Dissert. I....