Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 16:16
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, [so] that his soul was vexed unto death;
16. she pressed him ] Cf. Jdg 14:17. When it came to testing the higher kind of strength, Samson failed. ‘I to myself was false ere thou to me’; Milton, Samson Agonistes, 824.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. His soul was vexed unto death] What a consummate fool was this strong man! Might he not have seen, from what already took place, that Delilah intended his ruin? After trifling with her, and lying thrice, he at last commits to her his fatal secret, and thus becomes a traitor to himself and to his God. Well may we adopt the sensible observation of Calmet on this passage: La foiblesse du caeur de Samson, dans torte cette histoire, est encore plus etonnante que la force de son corps; “The weakness of Samson’s heart in the whole of this history, is yet more astonishing than the strength of his body.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Being tormented by two contrary and violent passions; desire to gratify her whom he so much doted upon, and fear of betraying himself to utmost hazard. But being deserted by God, it is no wonder that he chooseth the worst part.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. she pressed him daily with herwordsThough disappointed and mortified, this vile womanresolved to persevere; and conscious how completely he was enslavedby his passion for her, she assailed him with a succession ofblandishing arts, till she at length discovered the coveted secret.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him,…. Lay at him day after day to communicate the secret to him, gave him no rest, but was incessant in her applications to him:
so that his soul was vexed unto death: could hardly bear to live, but wished to die, being in the utmost perplexity what to do between two different passions, love and fear; on the one hand chained by his lust to this harlot, that was continually teasing him, and whom he had not an heart to leave, or otherwise that would have cleared him of his difficulties; and on the other hand, should he disclose the secret, he feared, and was in danger of losing his strength, in which his glory lay: or
“his soul was shortened unto death” c;
it was the means of shortening his days, and hastening his death. Abarbinel thinks that Samson was sensible of this, that his days were short, and the time of his death at hand; which made him the more willing to impart the secret. This may put in mind of the story of Milo, a man famous for his great strength, said to carry an ox upon his shoulders a furlong without breathing; of whom it is reported, that none of his adversaries could deliver themselves out of his hands, but his whore could, often contending with him; hence it is observed of him, that he was strong in body, but not of a manly soul d; and there are many other things said e of him concerning his great strength, which seem to be taken from this history of Samson.
c “abbreviata est”, Montanus, Drusius. So Munster. d Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 24. e Vid. Pausan. Eliac. 2. sive. l. 6. p. 309.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) His soul was vexed.He at last reveals the secret, because he is weariedliterally, his soul is shortenedto death. (Comp. Num. 21:4-5.) Even the dangerous use which Delilah had made of his last revelation did not rouse his mind from its besotted stupefaction.
Swollen with pride, into the snare I fell
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,
Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life,
At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap
Of a deceitful concubine.Milton, Sams. Agon.
If he thrice proved his vast strength, he also thrice proved his immense folly. To use his strength in the mere saving of his own life was to squander it, and now, as if possessed by insanity, he madly trifles with the key of his secret. He risks even the tampering with his hair. From this there is but one step to the final catastrophe (Ewald).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. She pressed him daily We are not to suppose that her efforts to find out his secret and the three acts of binding him followed close upon one another on a single day. Weeks, perhaps, intervened between his visits to her, and now, after having been mocked three times, she will not admit him to her embrace unless he tells her all his heart. Daily he comes, and vainly says, I love thee. She refuses to receive him, and torments him by such words as are given in Jdg 16:15, yet still urging him to reveal his secret, and so, being long hindered from indulging his lustful love with her, his soul was vexed unto death. So fierce was the conflict between his passions and his better sense.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jdg 16:16-17 a
‘And it came about that when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death, and he told her all his heart.’
What sad words these are. Pressed and urged day after day by a woman who professed deep love for him, while all the time her only aim was betrayal, until he could stand against her no longer because of his deep love for her, he opened his heart and told her the truth, the truth that would destroy the remainder of his life.
Jdg 16:17 b
‘And he said to her, “There has not come a razor on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man.” ’
At last he divulged his secret. His strength lay in the fact that he was a Nazirite, dedicated to Yahweh, which was why his hair was uncut. Should his hair be shorn then his vow would be broken and he would become like anyone else.
Yet there are grounds for thinking that he had become so arrogant in his strength that he did not really believe it. Consider the facts. Each time he had suggested some method to her he had woken to find that she had tried it out, whether with withes, with ropes or with loom. Could he then doubt that she would also cut his hair? Possibly then he was fondly aware of what she would do but did not think that it would matter. His vow had become so unimportant to him, and his strength so natural, that he did not think that the vow mattered.
This is confirmed by the fact that when he woke up with his head shaven, and he must surely have realised the fact immediately, he still did not believe that Yahweh would have left him (Jdg 16:20). After all, using the jawbone of the ass had done no harm, and sleeping with a prostitute in Gaza had done no harm, both acts contrary to his vows, why then should the cutting off of his hair? We must beware of treating God’s patience as an excuse for further sin.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 16:16 And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, [so] that his soul was vexed unto death;
Ver. 16. When she pressed him daily with her words. ] Coarctaret, pene cogeret. She gave him no rest or respite, Ut anima eius tantum non enecaretur, so that he was even weary of his life through her importunity, to the which at length he yielded: as afterwards Alexander the Great burned the fair city Persepolis, at the motion of a strumpet, upon whom he impotently doated.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
vexed. Became impatient, or grieved.
unto death = to make him die.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
she pressed: Pro 7:21-23, Pro 7:26, Pro 7:27, Luk 11:8, Luk 18:5
vexed: Heb. shortened, Job 21:4, *marg. Jon 4:9, Mar 14:24
Reciprocal: Jdg 14:17 – she lay Job 19:2 – vex Pro 1:10 – General Eze 16:30 – the work