Judges 16.1-31 tells us about Samson and two women. One was a harlot who narrowly escapes from, and the other is a woman called Delilah; his capture and final victory.
v 1…Now Samson went to Gaza (she was strong) and saw a harlot there, and went into her (the harlot is a type of Israel-Isa 1.21; Jer 2.20; the book of Hosea).
v 2…When it was told to the Gazites, saying, “Samson has come here,” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night (Israel plotted to kill Yeshua) at the gate (where the courts where, like the Sanhedrin-John 11.47-50) of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, “Let us wait until the coming light, then we will kill him.”
v 3…Now Samson lay until midnight, and at midnight (when Messiah comes-Matt 25.6) he arose and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron (Hebron means “communion” and this alludes to the beginning of the Eschatological Kahal and the coming of the Ruach Ha Kodesh to believers in Acts 2; later the gates and Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD).
v 4…After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek (valley of the choice vine and a type of Israel) whose name was Delilah (languishing; Israel was weak and languishing in unbelief, carrying on with the same theme of of spiritual harlotry of Israel).
v 5…And the lords (rulers) of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his strength lies and how we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver (Delilah’s efforts to find the source of Samson’s strength portrays the efforts of the Jewish leaders to trap and get rid of Yeshua).
v 6…So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.”
v 7…And Samson said to her, “If you bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man .”
v 8…Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
v 9…Now she had men lying in wait in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a string of tow (short threads of flax like a wick) snaps when it catches on fire. So his strength was not discovered (Yeshua also spoke in parables and he cannot be bound by any power other than his own).
v 10…Then Delilah said to Samson, behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound (Like the Jewish leaders persisted in trying to trap Yeshua).”
v 11…Then he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.”
v 12…So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to Samson, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” For the men were lying in wait in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like a thread.
v 13…Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies (she acts offended), tell me how you may be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my hair with the web and fasten it with a pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man (but Nazarites braided their hair and wrapped it around their head under a turban, so this will not work).”
v 14…So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web. And she fastened it with a pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web (Samson cannot be taken until he gives himself up, like Yeshua).
v 15…Then she said to him,, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me three times and have not told me where your great strength is.”
v 16…And it came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death (he knew he would be betrayed like Yesua did).
v 17…So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my heard, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man (in the same way, Yeshua’s love for treacherous Israel who was out to harm him, he gave himself into her hands).
v 18…When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in her heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the ords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands (like Judas).
v 19…And she made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him (she being weaker began to manage him), and his strength left him (Yeshua came under the power of his enemies).
v 20…And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed him.
v 21…Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains (bronze is the metal of judgment), and he was a grinder in the prison.
v 22…However, the hair on his head began to grow back again after it was shaved off (the promise of a “resurrection”).
v 23…Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to off a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and rejoice, for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands (This alludes to the Jewish rulers assembling in the Temple to celebrate Passover in 30 AD; the Jewish rulers also rejoiced at that Passover because they thought their God had given their enemy Yeshua into their hands, captured and bound).
v 24…When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, even the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us (just like the people wanted Barabbas released, not Yeshua).”
v 25…It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us (Yeshua’s crucifixion amused the rulers and they mocked him also). So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between two pillars (alludes to Yeshua crucified between two thieves).
v 26…Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand (a type of the nameless servant called the Ruach Ha Kodesh who led Yeshua), “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.”
v 27…Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them (at Yeshua’s crucifixion, there were two groups of people, the rulers and the people. Both groups looked upon Yeshua like they did Samson).
v 28…Then samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord (Adonai) God (Yehovah), please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God (Elohim), that I may once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes (similar to Yeshua’s prayers).
v 29…And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left (Samson becomes like a mediator between to opposites, God and Man, heaven and earth; and his arms are outstretched like Yeshua’s on the cross).
v 30…And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he bent (bowed) with all his might so that the house Temple) fell on the lords and all the people who were in it (because the Jewish rulers and the people rejected Yeshua, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD; spiritually this also alludes to Ha Satan and his house which was destroyed when Yeshua died). So the dead whom he killed at his death was more than those whom he killed in his life.
v 31…Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, took him and brought him up and buried him (like Yeshua’s spiritual brothers and family did-Matt 27.57-61; Mark 15.46-47; Luke 23.50-56; John 19.38-42) between Zorah (“smitten with tzara’at/leprosy”) and Eshtaol (“I will be entreated”; this also alludes to the ministerial role of Yeshua as mediator because those “smitten with the leprosy of sin can pray and entreat God” for salvation and forgiveness because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Yeshua)
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