16:4 After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.” 1
16:10 Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you deceived 2 me and told me lies! Now tell me how you can be subdued.”
16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair 6 into the fabric on the loom 7 and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
1 tn Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”
2 tn See Gen 31:7; Exod 8:29 [8:25 HT]; Job 13:9; Isa 44:20; Jer 9:4 for other uses of this Hebrew word (II תָּלַל, talal), which also occurs in v. 13.
3 tn Heb “are upon you.”
4 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”
5 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.
7 tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.
8 tn Heb “all his heart.”
9 tn Heb “she sent and summoned.”
10 tc The translation follows the Qere, לִי (li, “to me”) rather than the Kethib, לָהּ (lah, “to her”).
11 tn Heb “all his heart.”