Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 16:14
And she fastened [it] with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines [be] upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
14. the pin of the beam ] The Hebrew is ungrammatical and gives the impression that the pin has been intruded. Instead of beam render loom ( ’ereg, Job 7:6). The general sense is clear: Samson pulled up the whole framework, warp and all, out of the ground by the hair of his head.
The Greek versions, understanding pin in its ordinary meaning of peg, construct a different arrangement of the apparatus: they imply that the end of the loom was fastened by pegs into the wall opposite, and that Samson’s hair was stretched horizontally with the warp. See the art. ‘Weaving’ by Prof. A. R. S. Kennedy in the Encycl. Bibl. , upon which the foregoing notes are based.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And she fastened it with the pin … – The meaning of the verses seems to be that the seven long plaits, in which Samsons hair was arranged, were to be woven as a woof into the threads of a warp which stood prepared on a loom in the chamber, which loom Delilah fastened down with a pin, so as to keep it firm and immoveable. But Samson, when he awoke, tore up the pin from its socket, and went away with the loom and the pin fastened to his hair.
The beam – Rather, the loom, or frame. The beam is the wooden revolving cylinder, on which the cloth is rolled as fast as it is woven, the Hebrew word for which 1Sa 17:7; 1Ch 11:23; 1Ch 20:5 is quite different from that here used.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Having done what Samson directed, she adds this for sureness sake; she fastened the hair thus woven with a pin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. went away with the pin of thebeam, and with the webthat is, the whole weaving apparatus.
Jud16:15-20. HE ISOVERCOME.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And she fastened it with the pin,…. That is, after she had interwoven the locks of his hair into the warp, she fastened the beam on which it was with the pin, that it might not roll back; or else her machine or loom to the ground, that it might stand more firmly; or the web into which the hair was woven, with the hair itself; which of them is right, it is difficult to say: but if the addition of the Septuagint version can be admitted as genuine, which supplies some things which seem to be wanting, and which best agrees with what follows, the whole will be plain and easy, and which after the preceding verse runs thus;
“and fastenest “them” with a pin to the wall, then shall I be weak as another man; and it came to pass when he slept, and Delilah took seven locks of his head, and wove “them” in the web, and fastened them with a pin to the wall;”
and then it follows as here:
and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson; as she had twice before:
and he awaked out of his sleep; in which he was during her weaving his locks into the web; and this makes it probable that he was in the same circumstances when she bound him both with withs and ropes, though it is not expressed:
and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web; carried off not the pin of the beam only, but the beam itself, and the warp on it, and the whole web into which his hair was woven. The Septuagint version is, he took the pin of the web out of the wall; and the Vulgate Latin, the pin with the hairs and web.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) She fastened it with the pin.Unless the additions of the Vulg. and the LXX. to the last verse were in the original text, she had not been told by Samson to do this, but did it to make assurance doubly sure. The versions add that she drove the pin into the wall (LXX.) or into the ground (Vulg.).
Went away with.Rather, tore up, as in Jdg. 16:3.
With the pin of the beam, and with the web.The words are technical, but the pin or plug seems to be the wooden peg with which the web was fastened down; and the beam was certainly not the weavers beam of 1Sa. 17:7, but apparently the comb. The loom was doubtless one of a simple kind in ordinary domestic use (like that described in Livingstones Travels), and Samson, startled from sleep, tore away his locks with the plug which fastened them down and the warp into which they were woven.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. She fastened it with the pin This was an effort to make him still more secure. Not only did she weave his hair fast in her woof and warp, but made it faster still in some way by the pin of the beam. The meaning of this latter expression is doubtful. Some think that this pin was a large nail by which she fastened the web to the wall or floor; others, that it was the roller or beam to which the threads of the warp were fastened, and round which the cloth was rolled when woven. Keil thinks it was “the comb or press itself, which was fastened to the loom, so that it could only be torn out by force.” Whatever it was, when he was again suddenly aroused by the startling cry, The Philistines be upon thee! he tore out with his hair both the web and the pin, and went off with them. Perhaps, as Bush suggests, “he took away the whole apparatus together.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And she fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” And he awoke from his sleep and plucked away the pin of the beam and the warp threads.’
While he was asleep Delilah carried out the process he had described, finally fastening his hair to the beam with the pin. Then she gave him warning of the presence of Philistines and he woke up and freed his hair, possibly breaking the loom in the process. He thought it was all part of the continuing game. He did not dream that previously Philistines had actually been present, just in case it worked.
Ominously ‘fastened the pin’ are the same words as ‘drove the nail’ in Jdg 4:21. The blows were just as deadly for both had the same purpose in mind, the destruction of a man.
LXX has here, ‘and it came about that when he slept, Delilah took seven locks of his head, and wove them in the warp threads, and fastened them with a pin to the beam.” Note that even in LXX there is no mention this time of Philistines actually being present. Perhaps this time she had decided to try to find his secret without the Philistines being present. It would be getting somewhat difficult having to explain to them each time why she had failed. She could then pass on the secret later and arrange to do it another time. That is certainly what she did in the end.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 16:14 And she fastened [it] with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines [be] upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
Ver. 14:. And he awaked out of his sleep.] The Philistines durst not meddle with him though asleep: no more than men dare venture upon a sleeping lion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
out of his sleep: i.e. the sleep mentioned in the Homoeoteleuton above.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
went away: Ezr 9:13, Ezr 9:14, Psa 106:43
Reciprocal: Jdg 16:20 – I will go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 16:14. She fastened it with a pin She took the first opportunity when he was asleep of trying the experiment, and the weaving instrument being near the head of the bed where he lay, she interwove the locks of his hair with the web or woof, and fastened it with some pin or peg that belonged to the loom. She then alarmed him with the cry of the Philistines being upon him, when Samson, awaking and raising up his head, plucked out the pin that his hair was fastened with, and tore out, together with it, the web from the loom.