Samson was born with a purpose from before he was even conceived in his mother’s womb. His mother, the wife of Manoah, was “barren and childless.” An angel of the Lord appeared unto Samson’s mother and prophesied that she would conceive a son and that he shall be a Nazarite from the womb. The angel of the Lord told her that no razor shall come upon his head, for he will be born a Nazarite to begin to save his people Israel from the hand of the Philistines (Judges 13:2-5).
Samson had great strength because Yahweh’s spirit rested upon him. He tore a lion that roared at him with his bare hands (Judges 14:5-6). Samson also had a strong weakness. He had a weakness of choosing unloyal women. His first wife was a Philistine, who eventually left Samson, for his companion and friend (Judges 14:20). At this time, the Philistines had rule over Judah (Judges 15:11). Samson chose another unloyal woman, a prostitute in Gaza. Samson physically lies with her. Samson’s poor choices of intimate companionship are even more evident when he falls in love with a woman of the “valley of Sorek,” whose name was Delilah. The valley of Sorek was located west of Jerusalem (Judges 16:4).
Now, we can infer that the Philistines were all amazed and dumbfounded by Samson’s incredible strength. They were so dumbfound (had no knowledge of) how Samson was so strong or what made Samson so strong that they convinced Delilah to betray Samson by getting her to find out where his great strength lies. They each offered her 1100 pieces of silver for her betrayal. This was a nice sum of money and she agreed to betray Samson.
Now, Samson loved Delilah, but Delilah was not loyal to him. She had already betrayed him by accepting the deal offered by the lords of the Philistines to find out the source of Samson’s strength so that the lords of the Philistine could “bind him and afflict him,” (Judges 16:5).
Why didn’t Samson notice something was wrong when Delilah began questioning him about the source of his strength? God’s Spirit was, however, the ultimate source of Samson’s strength. To keep the Lord’s Spirit upon him; he could not shave his head or cut his hair because he was a Nazarite from birth. Samson was so blinded by the love he had for Delilah that he failed to recognize her deception, and disloyalty. Delilah and the lords of the Philistines were dumbfounded concerning Samson’s great strength. If Delilah really loved him why would she even have to know where his “great strength” lies. Sometimes when we truly love someone we cannot see clearly who they really are, even when they mean us harm. Samson left Delilah confused and dumbfounded by lying to her about what would take his strength away from him. Three times she tried to take his strength away from him following the lies he told her. How could Samson be so naïve and blind to the fact that Delilah was working together with the lords of the Philistines?
Delilah played the: “If you really love me card,” on Samson. Because Samson really loved her, he eventually told her the secret to where his “great strength,” lies. Delilah, in her disloyalty told the Philistines Samson’s secret to his great strength and she had Samson’s seven locks of hair shaved off and Samson became weak like any other man and the Philistines bound him (Judges 16: 16-21).
This would not be the end of Samson’s fight against the Philistines. Remember he was born to begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. Samson’s hair began to grow back (Judges 16:22). One day the Philistines had Samson perform for them. They were all gathered together in a house (on top of the roof of a house), celebrating and offering sacrifices to their god Dagon because they believed their god had given Samson, their enemy, into their hands (Judges 16:23-24). 3,000 men and women had gathered (on the roof of the house), including all the lords of the Philistines (Judges 16:27).
Samson asks the Lord Yahweh to strengthen him one more time to avenge the Philistines of plucking out his two eyes. Yahweh strengthens Samson one last time and Samson brought down the house on the Philistines and upon himself; killing all the Philistines who were gathered there and himself (Judges 16: 2830). In the end Samson fulfilled his purpose.