Ver. 9. Now there were men lying in wait.] But durst not for their ears show themselves, till the experiment should prove true, and they be sure to overcome him.

Ver. 10. And told me lies.] Delilah may give Samson the lie: she may say anything, do anything to him: as Omphale or Jole might clap Hercules on the cheeks, or beat him about the head with her slipper: whereas, if another had done half so much, it would not have been borne with more patience than Robert Earl of Essex took a cuff on the ear from Queen Elizabeth. He laid his hand upon his sword, saith Mr Camden, and swore a great oath that he neither could nor would swallow so great an indignity, nor would he have borne it at King Henry VIII’s hand.

Ver. 11. And he said unto her.] See Judges 16:7.

Ver. 12. And there were liers in wait.] This he little thought of. No more do evil doers consider that the wrath of God and rage of all the creatures are ready prest to surprise them.

Ver. 13. And told me lies.] See Judges 16:10. The seven locks of my head.] Here he came nearer the business than before; till at length she had his whole heart out. Well might Terence call harlots Cruces.

Ver. 14. :. And he awaked out of his sleep.] The Philistines durst not meddle with him though asleep: no more than men dare venture upon a sleeping lion.

Ver. 15. How canst thou say, I love thee?] This was, it seems, a great word in Samson’s mouth, “I love thee dearly, Delilah.” This she twitteth him with, as if only from the teeth outward: and that he did not Medullitus et animitus eam amare. In amore sese comitantur ερως ετ ερις.

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.

Ver. 17. There hath not come a razor upon my head, &c.] Of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, it is storied, that he nourished his hair, which his mother coming of the race of Samson, as he gave it out, willed him to do in token of his descent. This was the cause that made him to be more respected of his men of war, most part of them believing that in those hairs was some rare virtue, or rather some fatal destiny. Turk. Hist., 236.

Ver. 18. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart.] Whoredom indeed had “taken away his heart,” (Hosea 4:11) had infatuated and besotted him, as it is the nature of these sensual sins to do; these “lusts of the flesh that war against the soul.” (1 Peter 2:12) And brought money in their hand.] Money they knew to be the monarch of this world, and to bear the mastery; but especially with such Poscinummiae, et Crumenimulgae as Delilah was.

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 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. Metam. 8.

Ver. 20. That the Lord was departed from him.] After which, al l miseries came rushing in upon him, as by a sluice: according to that of the prophet, “Woe be unto you when I depart from you”: του λογου ησυχαζοντος. When the Godhead withdrew but a while from our Saviour in the garden, and upon the cross, then began his sorrows and sufferings.

Ver. 21. Took him, and put out his eyes.] These eyes of his were the first offenders that betrayed him to lust; (Judges 16:1) and now they are first pulled out, and he led a blind captive to Gaza, where he was first captivated to his lust. The loss of his eyes showeth him his sin, saith one. Neither could he see how ill he had done, till he saw not. Muleasses king of Tunis, expelled his kingdom for whoredom, had his eyes put out with a burning hot iron, but was not brought thereby to a sight of his sin. And bound him with fetters of brass.] Who had suffered himself to be bound with the green withs of sensual delights. And he did grind in the prison house.] Like a slave, or rather like a horse: that he might earn his bread before he ate it. Yet by it, saith an interpreter, they chuckered themselves to think what use they should make herein of his great strength. Bp. Hall.

Ver. 22. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again.] By this time Samson was thoroughly humbled, and “accepting the chastisement of his iniquity,” found God favourable, whose property it is to comfort the abject, (2 Corinthians 7:6) and to do his people good when they are called outcasts; when men say, “This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” (Jeremiah 30:17) Samson repenting, reassumed his Nazariteship, and God was soon reconciled.

Ver. 23. For to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god.] That is, To Triton, the idol af those maritime nations, which was a fish downward, whence also he had his name Dagon. See 1 Samuel 5:4. Diodorus Siculus calleth this idol Derceta; others, Leucothea. And to rejoice.] Ad celebranda hilaria. So the wild Irish when they go to rob, which they account no shame, pray to God that they may meet with a booty; and when they meet with it, they account it God’s gift, and rejoice exceedingly. Camd., Britan. Irel., p. 144.

Ver. 24. And when the people saw him, they praised their god.] Magnates, magnetes; the multitude do as their rulers; and, as in beasts, the body followeth the head, so here.

Ver. 25. Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.] At feasts they had their γελωτοποιοι, such as made them merry. The Emperors of Rome presented the people with strange sights, as of lions, bears, panthers, tigers, &c., to exhilarate them: they also led their enemies before them in triumph: which Cleopatra not able to endure, killed herself: So did not Samson, but became the subject of his enemies’ scorn and malice, as did likewise Christ. (Matthew 27:29-31) And they set him between the pillars.] Where he might best be seen: but God had a holy hand in it, for a further mischief unto them.

Ver. 26. That I may lean upon them.] And so rest me, who am wearied out, either with grinding in the prison, or now making sport.

Ver. 27. Now the house.] Dagon’s temple: that where they had sinned, there they might suffer. So Ahab’s blood was licked up by dogs in the place where he had slain Naboth. (1 Kings 21:19) So Henry III of France was stabbed to death in that very chamber where he had contrived the massacre of Paris. Was full of men and women.] Assembled they were, by an overruling Providence, that they might be “broken in pieces.” (Isaiah 8:9) So were the Baalites in mount Carmel, (1 Kings 18:40) and afterwards in the house of their god, to be slain by Jehu. And so were the refractory Jews besieged and taken by the Romans at the feast of the Passover, when they were met together out of all parts of the land.

Ver. 28. And Samson called unto the Lord.] This was a prayer of faith, and a fruit of his repentance. Nunquam sero, si serio.

Ver. 29. And Samson took hold.] Orat et laborat: the heathens could say, Admota manu invocanda est Minerva. Men must pray, but with it do their endeavour; for God is not mocked. They that will be wise to salvation, must not only beg, but dig. (Proverbs 2:3-5) Samson first prayed, and then bowed himself with all his might. (Judges 16:30)

Ver. 30. Let me die with the Philistines.] Heb., Let my soul die [as Numbers 23:10] with the Philistines, -yet not as the Philistines, but the death of the righteous, who hath hope in his death, -to (Proverbs 14:32) destroy these Philistines, God’s enemies, out of a zeal of God’s glory. He devoted himself to death, not out of despair, or for vainglory, as some heathens did—Codrus the king of Athens, Decius the Roman Consul, &c.—but by an extraordinary instinct of God’s Spirit, and for a public good: as that Christian soldier did, who at the siege of Buda, to prevent the taking of the town, threw himself down from the wall, together with the dog, as he called him, -the Turk who had first got to the top of it, and set up the Turkish colours there; whereby the town was saved. Samson knew that he should die with the Philistines, Simili quidem poena, sed dissimili culpa, et diverso fine ac fato. Multum interest et qualia quis, et quisque patiatur, saith Augustine. These all died alike, but not for a like cause, or with like comfort. And the house fell upon the lords, &c.] Lords and the common people perished together. So they did at Fidenae in the days of Tiberius, where the amphitheatre fell at a sight of sword playing, and destroyed thirty thousand people, So at the fall of Blackfriars, many Papists were slain at a Mass: Drury the priest had his sermon and his brains knocked out of his head together. Let those that sport themselves with oaths as the Philistines did with Samson, beware; it will pull the house about their ears. (Zechariah 5:4) So the dead.] A type of Christ herein. (Hebrews 2:14) Death also is to a saint the accomplishment of mortification. (Romans 6:7) Sueton.

Ver. 31. Then his brethren.] An example of brotherly kindness.

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