Judges 16:19

Jdg 16:19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

Ver. 19. And she made him sleep upon her knees.] He sleepeth, but his enemies are waking and working against him: so are the antichristian rout against the Church of Christ. Oh pray, pray, said an eminent Dutch divine, Pontifex enim Rom. et Concilium Tridentinum mira molluntur.

To shave off the seven locks of his head.] And here Samson, simul comam atque coronam amisit, saith Jerome; he lost his hair and his crown, that is, his stupendous strength, together. And with this history of Samson agreeth that which Ovid {a} writeth of Nisus, king of the Megarensians, with his purple hair stolen from him by his own daughter, to his utter undoing. The devil loveth to be God’s ape. Quid enim Satanas impie non imitetur? saith Junius here.

And she began to afflict him.] Trudere et trudendo excitare, ut sibi caveret fuga; to bind him, and then to rouse him by jogging and thrusting him.

{a} Metam. 8.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 16:19-20. She made him sleep — By some sleepy potion; upon her knees — Resting his head upon her knees. She began to afflict him — To humble and bring him low, in which sense the original word is often used. For, it seems, as soon as the razor touched his head, his strength began to be diminished, which she perceived by some means or other. He awoke and said, within himself, I will go out as at other times — Samson probably did not find, immediately after he was awake, that his hair was shaven, which made him speak in this manner. He wist not that the Lord was departed — That he was not present with him as he had formerly been; that he no longer supplied him with that extraordinary and supernatural strength with which he had before endowed him. And justly, indeed, did God depart and withdraw his presents and gifts from a man who put it into the power of a harlot to rob him of that which he knew had been appointed the tenure whereby he was to hold them. For he hereby plainly showed that he regarded the caresses of a harlot more than the divine favour, and the preservation of such extraordinary endowments. Alas! how many have lost the favourable presence of God, and are not aware of it! They have provoked him to withdraw from them, but are not sensible of their loss!

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Not for the loss of his hair, but for the contempt of the ordinance of God, which was the cause that God departed from him.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head--It is uncertain, however, whether the ancient Hebrews cut off the hair to the same extent as Orientals now. The word employed is sometimes the same as that for shearing sheep, and therefore the instrument might be only scissors.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. She began to affect him] She had probably tied his hands slyly, while he was asleep, and after having cut off his hair, she began to insult him before she called the Philistines, to try whether he were really reduced to a state of weakness. Finding he could not disengage himself, she called the Philistines, and he, being alarmed, rose up, thinking he could exert himself as before, and shake himself, i.e., disengage himself from his bonds and his enemies: but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him; for as Delilah had cut off his locks while he was asleep, he had not yet perceived that they were gone.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) Made him sleep upon her knees.—As his locks could hardly be shaved off without awaking him from any ordinary sleep, the expression looks as if she had administered some “drowsy syrup,” like mandragora.

She called for a man.—Probably the concealed spy (Jdg_16:9). “Laying down his head amongst the strumpet flatteries . . . while he sleeps and thinks no harm, they, wickedly shaving off all those bright and weighty tresses . . . which were his ornament and his strength, deliver him over . . .” (Milton, Reason of Church Government). Whether the pagan legends of the lock of Nisus or Pterolaus were distant echoes of this incident we cannot say. But the hair of Samson was no magical amulet. It was only a sign of dedication to God. While he kept his vow the strength remained; it only departed when the vow was shamefully broken.

She began to afflict him.—Rather, to humble him (Jdg_19:24). We cannot tell the exact meaning of the clause, since it is only in the next verse that Samson is said to awake. (Comp. Pro_7:26.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. she made him sleep] Cf. Jdg_16:14 LXX. cod. A. For a man the original has the man, i.e. who was waiting in readiness. For and shaved (subj. Delîlah) the context seems to require the reading and he shaved; the man was called in for this purpose.

she began to afflict him] Can this mean, by cutting off his hair? Moore suggests that D. bound him (cf. Jdg_16:5-6), as may be implied in the words I will shake myself in Jdg_16:20. The Greek reads he began to be afflicted or humbled; his strength began to ebb away as the hair fell. So many moderns.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she made him sleep upon her knees,.... Giving him, as some think, a sleepy potion; or however encouraged him to take a nap upon her knees, and by her fondness lulled him to sleep:

and she called for a man; a barber; in former times to shave was the work of a servant (f) and sometimes of a woman; she gave orders for one to be sent for; for Jarchi calls him a messenger of the lords of the Philistines:

and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; this shows that they were not wove into one another, and made but one lock, as some interpret what she was before directed to do:

and she began to afflict him; as his hair was shaving off; though he was asleep, yet he discovered some uneasiness, the effects of it began to appear: though the word "began" here may be redundant, as in Num 25:1 and then the meaning is, that she afflicted him, or again afflicted him; for she had afflicted him, or at least attempted it, three times before, and therefore did not begin now; this Hebraism is used in Mar 4:1 and frequently in Jewish writings (g):

and his strength went from him; sensibly and gradually; though some understand it of her shaking him in a violent manner to awake him, and shrieking and crying out terribly to frighten him, with her old cry of the Philistines being on him, and of her binding him, though not expressed; whereby she perceived his strength was gone, and he could not loose himself.

(f) Vid. Pignorium de servis, p. 89, 90, 91. & Popma de servis, p. 57, 58. (g) See Lightfoot. Hor. Heb. in Mark iv. 1. Vid. Sterringae Animadv. Philolog. Sacr. p. 248.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Knees, by some soporiferous draught, as on the other occasions. (Menochius) --- Barber. He only produced the razor, or rather a pair of scissors, such as were used to shear sheep. Barbers were unknown at Rome for 454 years; and the ancient Greeks looked with indignation upon those who introduced the custom of shaving among them. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vii. 59.) The Hebrews did not cut all their beard, and generally let the hair of their head grow long. Samson wore his curled, which is still the fashion among some people. --- And began. Septuagint, "he began to be humbled, (Calmet) or rendered abject, and his strength," &c. Hebrew, "she began to render him contemptible" (Haydock)

"But what is strength without a double share

Of wisdom? vast, unwieldy, burdensome." --- Milton’s Samson.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

She made him sleep, by some sleepy potion, which it is like she gave him upon other pretences, agreeable enough to his present and vitiated inclination.

Upon her knees; resting his head upon her knees.

She caused him to shave off, with a gentle hand, as if she herself had been but sporting with him. She did this more securely, partly because she had cast him into a deep sleep, and partly because if he had discovered it before it was finished, she would have said it was only an innocent intention to try the sincerity of his affection to her, and the truth of this last relation, which she had so just reason to doubt of, from his frequent dissimulation and lies.

She began to afflict him, i.e. to disturb, and awaken, and affright him, as by other ways, so particularly by crying out in a terrible manner,

The Philistines are upon thee, as she had done before, and as it follows, Jdg 16:20.

His strength went from him; which, as is here implied, she perceived, because he could not now shake himself as he did before, i.e. with equal rigour and might, as is intimated in the next verse; or because she had bound him, though it be not here expressed, and found him unable to break his bands.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. She called for a man — “Probably a barber. The business of eastern barbers lies in shaving the head rather than the beard, and they do it so skilfully and gently that, so far from a sleeping man being awaked, a waking man is lulled to sleep under the operation. Considering the great mass of hair of which Samson had to be deprived, he would probably have been roused by inexperienced hands, which may be the reason why Delilah herself did not operate upon the recumbent Nazarite, as painters falsely represent that she did.” — Kitto.

She began to afflict him — In what particular way is told in the next verse.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

She called for a man. It is she called to the man the man whom she had secreted in the chamber before she put Samson to sleep, that he might cut off the locks. She caused him to shave. In the Hebrew it is she shaved, but it probably means that she did so by his instrumentality. She began to afflict, or humble, him. His strength began to wane immediately his locks began to be shorn, and it was all gone by the time his hair was all cut off.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sleep - By some sleepy potion. Knees - Resting his head upon her knees. To weaken or hurt, tho' he felt it not.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

[She] summoned the man. The nobles' agent.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.