Judges 16:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Judges 16:19
And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
to depress literally or figuratively · preposition + verb, piel infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
strength
כֹּח֖וֹko.Cho
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
went
וַיָּ֥סַרvai.Ya.sar
H5493
to turn off (literal or figurative) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 7:26-27 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Proverbs 7:21-23 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from he…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 16:18-21
We have here the fatal consequences of Samson's folly in betraying his own strength; he soon paid dearly for it. A whore is a deep ditch; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. In that pit Samson sinks. Observe, 1. What care Delilah took to make sure of the money for herself. She now perceived, by the manner of his speaking, that he had told her all his heart, and the lords of the Philistines that hired her to do this base thing are sent for; but they must be sure to bring the money in their hands, Jdg 16:18. The wages of unrighteousness are accordingly produced, unknown to Samson. It would have grieved one's heart to have seen one of the bravest men then in the world sold and b…
she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head--It is uncertain, however, whether the ancient Hebrews cut off the hair to the same extent as Orientals now. The word employed is sometimes the same as that for shearing sheep, and therefore the instrument might be only scissors.
John Gill on Judges 16:19
And she made him sleep upon her knees,.... Giving him, as some think, a sleepy potion; or however encouraged him to take a nap upon her knees, and by her fondness lulled him to sleep:
and she called for a man; a barber; in former times to shave was the work of a servant (f) and sometimes of a woman; she gave orders for one to be sent for; for Jarchi calls him a messenger of the lords of the Philistines:
and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; this shows that they were not wove into one another, and made but one lock, as some interpret what she was before directed to do:
and she began to afflict him; as his hair was shaving off; though he was asleep, yet he discovered…
Samson and Delilah. - Jdg 16:4. After this successful act, Samson gave himself up once more to his sensual lusts. He fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, named Delilah (i.e., the weak or pining one), to whose snares he eventually succumbed. With reference to the valley of Sorek, Eusebius affirms in the Onom. (s. v. Σωρήχ), that there was a village called Βαρήχ (l. Καφὰρ σωρήχ according to Jerome) near Zorea, and ἐν ὁρίοις (l. βορείοις according to Jerome, who has ad septentrionalem plagam); and also (s. v. Σωρήκ) that this place was near to Eshtaol. Consequently the Sorek valley would have to be sought for somewhere in the neighbourhood of Samson's birthplace (Jdg 13:1)…
The Church Fathers
But the one who has taken root as "a fruitful olive tree in the house of God" composes those words against the tyrant which we have heard in the psalm, saying, "Why do you glory in evil, you who are mighty in iniquity," whose "tongue" is "like a sharp razor." It was by means of these two things that [Samson] was led off, after [Delilah] had removed the beauty of his hair and cut off the "seven locks of curls" in which our strength lies. Now you will by all means understand the meaning of the spiritual curls from the number seven, just as Isaiah has enumerated the grace which comes from the Spirit in seven parts. If these are cut off, as happened in the case of Samson, the destruction of the "eyes" follows, and one becomes a laughing stock to foreigners when they are drunk.
Now what does it mean that Samson possessed strength in his hair? Notice this carefully, too, brothers. He did not have strength in his hand, his foot, his chest, not even in his head, but in his hair. What is hair? If we perceive it, the apostle answers us after being questioned, "Hair is a covering"; and Christ had strength in a covering, when the shadows of the old law protected him. For this reason the hair of Samson was a covering, since it was seen and understood in Christ at different times. What does it mean that Samson's secret was betrayed and his head was shaved? The law was despised and Christ suffered. They would not have killed Christ if they had not contemned the law, for they knew that it was not right for them to kill him. They told the judge, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." Samson's head was shaved, the secrets were exposed, the covering was removed; Christ who lay hidden was revealed. Moreover, the hair was restored and again covered the head, because the Jews were unwilling to recognize Christ when he was risen. He was in a mill, blinded and in a prison house. The prison or mill is the labor of this world. The blindness of Samson indicates people who are blinded by their infidelity and do not recognize Christ exercising his power or ascending into heaven.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Barber — Found only once, in Ezek. 5:1, where reference is made to the Jewish custom of shaving the head as a sign of mourning. The Nazarites were untouched by the razor from their birth (Num. 6:5). Comp.…
Delilah — Languishing, a Philistine woman who dwelt in the valley of Sorek (Judg. 16:4-20). She was bribed by the “lords of the Philistines” to obtain from Samson the secret of his strength and the means of…
Hair — (1.) The Egyptians let the hair of their head and beard grow only when they were in mourning, shaving it off at other times. “So particular were they on this point that to have neglected it was a…
Lock — The Hebrews usually secured their doors by bars of wood or iron (Isa. 45:2; 1 Kings 4:3). These were the locks originally used, and were opened and shut by large keys applied through an opening in…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Conspiracy · . — .
Deception · . — .
Friends · . — .
Hair, The · Of Nazarites: Not to be cut or shorn during their vow — Of Nazarites: Not to be cut or shorn during their vow
Samson · Philistines to overcome him — Philistines to overcome him
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
