*Sacred Scripture* Samson & Delilah – Mantegna

Delilah cuts off the hair of Samson while he sleeps, in this unique artwork by A. Mantegna.

Jgs 16:1-22

Samson and Delilah.

4After that he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek whose name was Delilah.

5^a The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Trick him and find out where he gets his great strength, and how we may overcome and bind him so as to make him helpless. Then for our part, we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me where you get your great strength and how you may be bound so as to be made helpless.”

7“If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not dried,” Samson answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”

8So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried, and she bound him with them.

9She had men lying in wait in the room, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of tow is snapped by a whiff of flame; and his strength remained unexplained.

10Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me how you may be bound.”

11“If they bind me tight with new ropes, with which no work has been done,” he answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”

12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” For there were men lying in wait in the room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.

13Delilah said to Samson again, “Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web and fasten them with the pin, I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”

14So when he went to bed, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web, and fastened them with the pin. Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Awakening from his sleep, he pulled out both the loom and the web.

15^b Then she said to him, “How can you say ‘I love you’ when your heart is not mine? Three times already you have mocked me, and not told me where you get your great strength!”

16^c She pressed him continually and pestered him till he was deathly weary of it.

17So he told her all that was in his heart and said, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a nazirite for God from my mother’s womb.^d If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”

18When Delilah realized that he had told her all that was in his heart, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came to her and brought the money with them.^e

19She put him to sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair. He immediately became helpless, for his strength had left him.^*

20When she said “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as I have done time and again and shake myself free.” He did not realize that the LORD had left him.

21But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding grain in the prison.

22But the hair of his head began to grow as soon as it was shaved.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/judges/16