This is the first and only time in the narrative that we are told that Samson loved
a woman. This was not said of his half-night with the prostitute from Gaza. He simply saw
and went in to her
(Judges 16:1). In his brief marriage with the Timnite woman, the word love
occurs only on the lips of his wife, and as a reproach: You do not love me
(Judges 14:16), and from what that narrative shows us, she is very much right; Samson simply judges her right
based on what he sees
(Judges 14:1–3). He never loved
her. But here, apparently, it is different. Delilah is not just a prize acquisition, or sex provider. She has a name, and love stands at the beginning as the narrator's own term for how Samson perceived her and desired her.
1
The note is indeed an unusual one, not only in the Samson narrative but in the narratives in the Bible as a whole. Rarely do we read of this terminology; less than ten times does it appear: Jacob is in love with Rachel (Genesis 29:18, Genesis 29:20, Genesis 29:30), Israel loves Rachel's son Joseph (Genesis 37:3), Jonathan loves David (1 Samuel 18:1, 1 Samuel 18:3; 2 Samuel 1:26); Michal loves David (1 Sam 18:22) and Hoshea loves Gomer at God’s command (Hosea 3:1).2
4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.