(13) If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.--The illustrious and "sunny locks of the Nazarite" did not, as Milton imagines, "lie waving and curling about his god-like shoulders," but were plaited into seven locks. The word for "locks"--machelephoth--occurs here only. The LXX. render it "curls" (bostruchous) and seiras, which appears to mean "plaits," like the Greek plokamous. The word for "web" is a technical word, and perhaps means warp. The LXX. and the Vulg. add, "and drive them with the peg into the wall," which is implied in the next verse. With almost incredible levity and folly, Samson here goes to the very verge of the true secret, and suffers his sacred hair to be woven in a harlot's loom. (Tertio de mysterio deprompsit jam lapsuro propior. St. Ambrose.)
Verse 13. - The seven locks, by which we learn that his mass of hair as a Nazarite was arranged in seven locks or plaits. His resistance was becoming weaker, and he now approached the dangerous ground of his unshorn hair. With the web. This must mean the warp, which was already fastened in the loom, and across which Samson s locks were to be woven as the woof.
16:4-17 Samson had been more than once brought into mischief and danger by the love of women, yet he would not take warning, but is again taken in the same snare, and this third time is fatal. Licentiousness is one of the things that take away the heart. This is a deep pit into which many have fallen; but from which few have escaped, and those by a miracle of mercy, with the loss of reputation and usefulness, of almost all, except their souls. The anguish of the suffering is ten thousand times greater than all the pleasures of the sin.
And Delilah said unto Samson,.... At another time, when she thought it most proper to upbraid him with his deception of her:
hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies; both the times that she had solicited him to impart the secret of his strength to her:
tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound; tell me the real truth, and deceive me no more:
and he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web; it seems that Samson's hair was parted into seven locks, which no doubt hung down very long; and now he tells her, that if these were interwoven with the warp which was upon the beam in a loom near by; perhaps in the same room, where Delilah used to weave, as was the custom of those times, and in various nations (a); his strength would be weakened; for Braunius (b) is mistaken in supposing this to be the beam about which the web was rolled, as he is also in the pin next mentioned, which he takes to be the "spatha", or lathe, with which the threads are knocked together.
(a) "Arguto conjux", &c. Virgil. Georgie. l. 1. v. 294. So Penelope in Homer, Minerva & Arachne in Ovid. Metamorph. l. 6. fab. 1. v. 55, &c. Vid. Pignorium de servis, p. 418. Braunium de Vest. Sacerd. Hebr. l. 1. c. 17. sect. 33. (b) "De Vest". Sacerd. Hebr. l. 1. c. 16. sect. 8.
hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies; both the times that she had solicited him to impart the secret of his strength to her:
tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound; tell me the real truth, and deceive me no more:
and he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web; it seems that Samson's hair was parted into seven locks, which no doubt hung down very long; and now he tells her, that if these were interwoven with the warp which was upon the beam in a loom near by; perhaps in the same room, where Delilah used to weave, as was the custom of those times, and in various nations (a); his strength would be weakened; for Braunius (b) is mistaken in supposing this to be the beam about which the web was rolled, as he is also in the pin next mentioned, which he takes to be the "spatha", or lathe, with which the threads are knocked together.
(a) "Arguto conjux", &c. Virgil. Georgie. l. 1. v. 294. So Penelope in Homer, Minerva & Arachne in Ovid. Metamorph. l. 6. fab. 1. v. 55, &c. Vid. Pignorium de servis, p. 418. Braunium de Vest. Sacerd. Hebr. l. 1. c. 17. sect. 33. (b) "De Vest". Sacerd. Hebr. l. 1. c. 16. sect. 8.