Even though it’s a pretty name, not too many parents name their baby daughters Delilah. In Judges 16, where we find the story of the original Delilah, we discover why.
Delilah’s nationality, family background, and hometown are all mysteries. Most scholars suspect she was a Philistine. Others speculate she was a prostitute at a pagan temple. All we know for sure is that she lived somewhere in the valley of Sorek and that her name has come to symbolize treacherous sensuality.
Delilah lived during the twenty-year period when the mighty Samson was being used by God to deliver Israel from Philistine oppression (see Judg 13:1–16:31). Whenever God’s Spirit came upon Samson, he engaged in the sorts of exploits only comic book heroes are said to do. He tore roaring lions apart with his bare hands. He wiped out whole gangs of Philistines—from 30 to 1,000 soldiers at a time. Samson’s God-given strength was his claim to fame.
Sadly, his unbridled sexual appetite was Samson’s claim to shame. Multiple times in the biblical record we see the moral weakness of this physically strong servant of God. On one occasion, a Philistine woman from Timnah caught Samson’s eye. The fact that she was a pagan was irrelevant to him—all he cared about was that she was attractive. “Get her for me as a wife,” he told his father (Judg 14:2). In Gaza he slept with a prostitute (see 16:1). Moving on from her, he met Delilah (see 16:4). Did he simply have a high capacity for love? Or was he driven by fleshly desires?
Whatever the true nature of Samson’s desire for Delilah, it was intense. When word got out that he and she were an item, Samson’s private life and professional life became dangerously intertwined. “The Philistine leaders went to [Delilah] and said, ‘Persuade [Samson] to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each of us will then give you 1,100 pieces of silver’” (Judg 16:5).
Delilah pounced at this lucrative offer like a frog snatching a bug. Summoning all her considerable female wiles, she immediately began flirting and cajoling and wheedling. She pulled out all the stops to get Samson to reveal the secret behind his unearthly power.
Time and again he toyed with her, providing misleading answers. Time and again, she leaked this bad information to her Philistine clients. With each bungled attempt by the Philistines to capture Samson, Delilah became increasingly pouty. Dollar signs in her eyes, the temptress ratcheted up the pressure. She went for the kill:
“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!”
Because she nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she wore him out, he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the money with them. (Judg 16:15–18)
Perhaps you know the end of the story. When Samson was sleeping (either drunk from wine or love, or maybe both), Delilah saw to it that his head was shaved.
Then, while she counted her bags of silver, the Philistines tied up the impotent Samson, poked out his eyes, and led him away. In death he would have one last glorious victory over Israel’s enemy (see Judg 16:23–30), but not before he suffered great humiliation.
As far as the sneaky, sultry Delilah, she is never heard from again.
The Takeaway
Don’t you wonder about Delilah’s life? About her past and experience with men? Did she learn early on that external beauty can sometimes be more of a curse than it is a blessing? Was she ever married? Was she a prostitute? The daughter of a prostitute?
And what about Delilah’s relationship with Samson? Did she get her hopes up at the beginning and think, even fleetingly, Maybe this time it’ll be different. After all, he’s a servant of the Holy One of Israel. Surely he’ll treat me right. Did she turn on Samson when his “love” turned out to be “lust”?
It’s dangerous to speculate where the Bible is silent, but it sure does seem like Delilah was a woman who was used to being used. Endure that for very long and it’s not hard to embrace a philosophy that says, “Take advantage of others before they take advantage of you.”
Food for Thought
- What are your biggest questions about this mysterious woman named Delilah?
- What do Samson and Delilah’s conversations/interactions reveal about male-female relationships?
- If you met and befriended a woman with a background like Delilah’s, what encouragement would you give her? How does the gospel of Jesus speak to someone with deep hurt and pain?