See Judges xiv, xv.

SAMSON, the Judge of Israel for twenty years, was the son of Manoah, "a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites." He loved Delilah, "a woman in the valley of Sorek," who wrought his ultimate destruction. The "tempting beauty or personal fascination of this woman seems to have completely unmanned him; and his varied and wonderful history is a striking example of a man of splendid power prostrated and destroyed by her whose" feet go down to death," whose" steps take hold on hell." The particular incident which this striking picture represents is thus rendered;- "And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the" lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. 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. 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."