Delilah - WikiHQ

thumb|right|300px|Delilah ( 1896) by [[Gustave Moreau]]

Delilah ( ; ; ; ) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved by Samson, and serves as the final Judge of Israel. Delilah is bribed by the lords of the Philistines to discover the source of his strength. After three failed attempts at doing so, she finally goads Samson into telling her that his vigor is derived from his hair. As he sleeps, Delilah calls a servant to cut Samson's hair, thereby enabling her to turn him over to the Philistines.

Delilah has been the subject of both rabbinic and Christian commentary; rabbinic literature identifies her with Micah's mother in the biblical narrative of Micah's Idol, while some Christians have compared her to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus. Scholars have noted similarities between Delilah and other women in the Bible, such as Jael and Judith, and have discussed the question of whether the story of Samson's relationship with Delilah displays a negative attitude towards foreigners. Notable depictions of Delilah include John Milton's closet drama Samson Agonistes and Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 Hollywood film Samson and Delilah. Her name has become associated with treacherous and voluptuous women.

In the Bible

thumb|right|Delilah from the

Delilah was a woman of Sorek. The two were not said to be married Three times she failed. and, as James D. G. Dunn and John William Rogerson note in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, it never discusses whether Delilah felt guilt for her actions.

Religious views

Jewish interpretations

thumb|300px|right|[[Max Liebermann's Samson and Delilah (1902)]]

Josephus and Pseudo-Philo both view Delilah as a Philistine and a prostitute; Josey Bridges Snyder theorizes that this may be due to the fact that Book of Judges portrays Samson as being attracted to both Philistine women () and prostitutes (). Pseudo-Philo also writes that Delilah was Samson's wife. and are supposed to "demonstrate the havoc that a foreign woman could wreak". Even before Delilah is mentioned, the length of Samson's career is described. Normally the length of someone's life or career in the Old Testament is mentioned last for a character to signify the end of his relevance to the narrative. David Kimhi notes that it is mentioned at the peak of his career; which implies that mentions of Samson afterwards marks his decline and downfall. This might explain why Samson eventually told Delilah of his weakness, even though she repeatedly betrayed him before. It is possible he was not fully aware that cutting his hair would cause God to allow him to lose his strength; since it was actually the decline of his spiritual state that caused him to lose God's favor. This theory rests on the fact that, in , Micah's mother gives her son 1,100 silver coins to construct his idol, similar to how Delilah was promised 1,100 silver coins to betray her lover by the Philistine leaders.

Samson's betrayal by Delilah has also been compared to Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot; both Delilah and Judas were paid in pieces of silver for their respective deeds. However, Thomas Cajetan, the head of the Dominicans until his death in 1534, viewed Delilah in a somewhat sympathetic light, suggesting that she never intended Samson to be killed or wounded. He asserts that Delilah accepted a bribe from the Philistine leaders because they convinced her that Samson would merely be weakened.

Similarly, Billy Graham of the Southern Baptist Convention (d. 2018) saw Samson's eyes being gouged out after he was handed over to the Philistines as his punishment for succumbing to his lust for Delilah; Graham also sees this as an example of the concept that one reaps what one sows.

Scholarly views

thumb|300px|left|A sketch for [[Peter Paul Rubens' Samson and Delilah (c. 1609)]]

Delilah is usually thought to have been a Philistine, however, numerous foreigners in the Bible have Hebrew names, so Delilah's name cannot be seen as indisputable proof that she was Hebrew. J. Cheryl Exum of the Jewish Women's Archive argues that the author of the Book of Judges would probably not portray Delilah in a negative light if she were a fellow Israelite. and frequently compared to the title character of the Book of Judith, who beheads Holofernes;

Some scholarly commentary on Delilah centers on her gender. In the Feminist Companion to Judges, Carol Smith says that feminist commentators tend to stress Delilah's positive qualities, explain her negative ones, or ignore her in favor of "other biblical women who are more amenable to reinterpretation in a positive way".

Haaretzs Elon Gilad writes "some biblical stories are flat-out cautions against marrying foreign women, none more than the story of Samson", noting that Samson's relationship with Delilah leads to his demise.

Contrariwise, Elizabeth Wurtzel sees Samson's relationship with Delilah as "the archetypal story of cross-cultural love between members of warring nations", akin to Romeo and Juliet. The use of the name "Delilah" to connote deceit or betrayal can be found in works such as H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man (1897), the Tom Jones song "Delilah" (1968), Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (1986), and Pat Conroy's Beach Music (1995). In One Thousand and One Nights, her name is applied to cunning women. casts Delilah as an unrepentant, but sympathetic, deceiver and speaks approvingly of the subjugation of women. with a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, based on Samson Agonistes.

The 1949 Biblical drama Samson and Delilah, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the titular roles, was widely praised by critics for its cinematography, lead performances, costumes, sets, and innovative special effects. It became the highest-grossing film of 1950 and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two. According to Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, the film depicts Delilah as "a much more noble creature than legend would lead us to suppose". In Samson and Delilah, Delilah is the sister of Samson's wife, and repents cutting off his hair. When Samson prepares to collapse the pillars, Delilah does not follow Samson's advice to get out and she dies alongside him when the temple collapses. and Elizabeth Hurley in Samson and Delilah (1996).

Citations

General and cited references

External links

"soreq" in Strong's Concordance