Judges 16:16,17

Judges 16:16 a

‘And it came about that when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death, and he told her all his heart.'

What sad words these are. Pressed and urged day after day by a woman who professed deep love for him, while all the time her only aim was betrayal, until he could stand against her no longer because of his deep love for her, he opened his heart and told her the truth, the truth that would destroy the remainder of his life.

Judges 16:17 b

‘And he said to her, “There has not come a razor on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man.” '

At last he divulged his secret. His strength lay in the fact that he was a Nazirite, dedicated to Yahweh, which was why his hair was uncut. Should his hair be shorn then his vow would be broken and he would become like anyone else.

Yet there are grounds for thinking that he had become so arrogant in his strength that he did not really believe it. Consider the facts. Each time he had suggested some method to her he had woken to find that she had tried it out, whether with withes, with ropes or with loom. Could he then doubt that she would also cut his hair? Possibly then he was fondly aware of what she would do but did not think that it would matter. His vow had become so unimportant to him, and his strength so natural, that he did not think that the vow mattered.

This is confirmed by the fact that when he woke up with his head shaven, and he must surely have realised the fact immediately, he still did not believe that Yahweh would have left him (Judges 16:20). After all, using the jawbone of the ass had done no harm, and sleeping with a prostitute in Gaza had done no harm, both acts contrary to his vows, why then should the cutting off of his hair? We must beware of treating God's patience as an excuse for further sin.