Judges 16:19-24
Judges 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.
Now
that Delilah knew the secret of Samson’s strength, she now proceeds to put an
end to Samson. First she may have
given him some kind of sleeping potion which put him to sleep and caused him to
fall asleep on her knees. Then
while he was sleeping, she called for one of her co-conspirators to shave off
his seven locks. Seven is the
number of completeness, so she had him shave his head.
As his hair was being shaved from his head, his strength was departing
him. The word “afflict” mays also
be understood as “weakening.” So as
his hair was falling, so was his strength but he was not aware of it yet because
either he was still sleeping or he was very drowsy.
Judges 16:20
And
she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep,
and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist
not that the LORD was departed from him.
Then
Delilah must have yelled to make sure that he woke up.
She yelled that the Philistines were upon him and he thought to himself
that he will go out just as he did before with no one capable of stopping him.
He shook himself to make sure that he was totally awake and ready for
action. This time he was weak
because the Lord departed from him since the Nazarite vow was now broken.
Judges 16:21
But
the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza,
and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
The
Philistines immediately took him and as one punishment, they gouged out his eyes
so he could never see again. Then
they transported him to Gaza bound with fetters of brass which normally he would
have been able to break free from.
Then they put him in prison and made him grind.
Grinding a hand mill was the lowest kind of slave labor there was.
The Greeks and the Romans punished their slaves by making them grind as
an act of humiliation. At this time in
history there was no donkeys doing the work along with the slaves so the slaves
had to do it by themselves. The use
of donkeys came later. In the
lamentations of Jeremiah he dreaded the fact that the Babylonians would do the
same thing to the young men of Judah.
They took the young men to grind,
and the children fell under the wood.
(Lamentations 5:13, KJV)
Judges 16:22
Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
As
with all people in the course of time Samson’s hair started to grow again but
possibly his hair may have grown at a faster rate and his head was filled in
with his hair much quicker.
Judges 16:23
Then
the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great
sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath
delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
Then
the lords of the Philistines had gathered themselves to a great feast to offer a
great sacrifice unto their god Dagon.
Dagon was the national god of the Philistines.
The name is derived from “dag” which means “fish.”
Dagon is the diminutive of dag and means “little fish.”
The idol was a combination of a human being with a fish.
Try to picture in your mind a male mermaid.
They met together to offer a big sacrifice because they believed that it
was Dagon who delivered Samson into their hands.
Judges 16:24
And
when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath
delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew
many of us.