Bible Strands
Judges 16:12
So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Delilah binds Samson with new ropes and shouts to hidden Philistines that he is captured, executing their second trap. This moment occurs immediately after Samson’s claim in Judges 16:11 that fresh cords would render him weak like any other man.
The words — The Hebrew עֲבֹתִים חֲדָשִׁ֜ים (‘a.vo.Tim cha.da.Shim) literally means “new ropes,” highlighting the untested material Delilah selected. This phrasing directly mirrors Samson’s own stipulation in Judges 16:11.
The thread — The narrative pattern of binding and breaking repeats in Judges 16:13, where Delilah demands a third method after this failure, leading to the loom test. The same cycle of deception, binding, and supernatural release structures the entire Judges 16 narrative.
Why it lands — The text records a physical failure that exposes Delilah’s repeated deception and Samson’s repeated disregard for the warning. It asks the reader to observe how deliberate ignorance of clear warnings produces predictable collapse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.