translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JDG

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל ( bo ’ ’ el , “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.


label: NET textual note

text: Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”


text: Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.


text: Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”


text: Heb “were silent.”


text: Heb “saying.”


text: The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: Heb “until the light of the morning.”


text: Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”


text: Heb “with the bar.”


text: Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”


text: Heb “subdue him in order to humiliate him.”


text: Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”


text: Or “moist.”


text: The word refers to a bowstring, probably made from animal tendons. See Ps 11:2 ; Job 30:11 .


text: Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב ( vÿha ’ orev ) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16 ).


text: Heb “are upon you.”


text: Heb “when it smells fire.”


text: Heb “His strength was not known.”


text: See Gen 31:7 ; Exod 8:29 [ 8:25 HT]; Job 13:9 ; Isa 44:20 ; Jer 9:4 for other uses of this Hebrew word (II תָּלַל , talal ), which also occurs in v. 13 .


text: Heb “with which no work has been done.”


text: Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”


text: Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.


text: Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges , 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.


text: The MT of vv. 13 b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13 b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.


text: The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “when your heart is not with me.”


text: Heb “forced him with her words.”


text: Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”


text: Heb “all his heart.”


text: Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”


text: Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר ( nazir ) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר ( nazar , “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).


text: Heb “from the womb of my mother.”


text: Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).


text: Heb “she sent and summoned.”


text: The translation follows the Qere , לִי ( li , “to me”) rather than the Kethib , לָהּ ( lah , “to her”).


text: Heb “on her knees.” The expression is probably euphemistic for sexual intercourse. See HALOT 160-61 s.v. בֶּרֶךְ .


text: Heb “she called for a man and she shaved off.” The point seems to be that Delilah acted through the instrumentality of the man. See J. A. Soggin, Judges (OTL), 254.


text: Heb “head.” By metonymy the hair of his head is meant.


text: Heb “She began to humiliate him.” Rather than referring to some specific insulting action on Delilah’s part after Samson’s hair was shaved off, this statement probably means that she, through the devious actions just described, began the process of Samson’s humiliation which culminates in the following verses.


text: Heb “are upon you.”


text: Heb “and said.”


text: Heb “I will go out as before.”


text: Heb “the hair of his head.”


text: Most interpret this as a reference to Samson, but this seems premature, since v. 25 suggests he was not yet standing before them. Consequently some prefer to see this statement as displaced and move it to v. 25 (see C. F. Burney, Judges , 387). It seems more likely that the pronoun refers to an image of Dagon.


text: Heb “multiplied our dead.”


text: Heb “When their heart was good.”


text: Heb “before them.”


text: Heb “the pillars upon which the house is founded.”


text: Heb “house.”


text: The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’ adonay yehovih , “Lord Yahweh”).


text: Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”


text: Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”


text: Heb “he stretched out with strength.”


text: Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”


text: Heb “and all the house of his father.”


text: Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”


text: Traditionally, “judged.”