Delilah’s Triumph
How shall mere strength prosper without wisdom? There arose at last a woman of the Philistines able to lure Samson to destruction. Her name was Delilah, and she dwelled in the valley of Sorek, not far from Samson’s native home. When the huge Israelite wooed her, she answered him with wily words, as once his wife had done. If he really loved her, he would tell her all his secrets, the secret of his strength.
At first Samson was as wily as she. He pretended to tell her whence his strength arose, but told her falsely. If bound with new green withs, he said, he would be helpless. So Delilah, waiting till he was asleep, tied him with the supposedly magic bonds and called his enemies into the room. Then she cried in triumph “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!”
“And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire.”
Three times she tricked him thus in vain, till at last he yielded and told her in very truth the secret of his strength. It lay in his long hair. So Delilah cut this off and then again summoned his enemies.
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