Samson told Delilah all that he had been keeping a secret. He mentions the words razor,
head,
Nazirite,
and strength.
Why does he tell her everything? Is it because he was a weak-willed man? Or because he was irrational in the face of Delilah’s seductions? Or because he truly loved her and thought she would keep his secret? Or because he was drunk, as some think? Key to the whole story is the end of Judges 16:17, where we hear something we had always expected but could never be completely sure of. “If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” In Samson’s heart, this is what he wanted. He wanted to be “like any other man”; he wanted to be normal.1 He had been acting that way, rather than as a holy Nazirite. He has been playing with his calling for all this time. He wants to be done with fighting the Philistines, he wants to be free from the burden of his office, he wants to resign from his Naziriteship. He does not want to be special, but normal, like everyone else, enjoying his women, doing whatever was right in his eyes! It is what the Israelites wanted to do to: become like Canaanites, or the Philistines; get rid of the Lord’s constraints on their lives as they revelled in sex and selfishness! Samson is opting out. He confesses to Delilah because it is a relief to unburden himself of his deepest resentments and desires…. In a way we can see his confession to Delilah as a cry for help, a plea to effect his release from the burden of his separateness, his Naziriteship.
2
17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”