Judges 16:6
And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.
The verse records Delilah pressing Samson with enticement to tell where his great strength lay and with what he might be bound, afflicted and overcome. Her questioning served the plan of the Philistine rulers to find a way to strip him of his strength, which she pursued for the silver they had promised her. His extraordinary strength depended not on his physical build but on his Nazarite condition, symbolized by his unshorn hair marking his lifelong dedication to God, so that shaving it would leave him weak like other men.
He at first deceived her, but her repeated pressure combined with his attachment and infatuation wore him down until he betrayed the secret of his strength into her hands. He was so captivated and blinded by her influence that he could not discern the danger of her attempt to deceive and destroy him, showing how lust of the flesh can enslave a person and obscure the difference between genuine love and sinful desire. Through sexual and sensual temptation her influence drew him from God, and his strength and role as Israel's defense were betrayed into the Philistines' hands; infatuated, he gave her the love and service due to God and sacrificed honor, conscience and every valuable interest to passion, showing how sensual passion can bring down even a strong man and compromise his integrity.
By yielding to temptation rather than relying on God's strength, his sinful indulgence cost him reputation, strength and usefulness and carried him toward shame, disaster, destruction and death; physical strength did not make him strong in self-control or moral firmness, warning of the danger of failing to guard the affections and resist temptation. The verse supplies the standing image of a Delilah as a snare, in which a wife who draws a man from God leaves him with diminishing strength. Delilah's power over Samson leading him toward deception and destruction illustrates how Cornell, enslaved by lust, was similarly blinded to Satan's work.