Judges 16:16

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) His soul was vexed.—He at last reveals the secret, because he is wearied—literally, his soul is shortened—to death. (Comp. Numbers 21:4-5.) Even the dangerous use which Delilah had made of his last revelation did not rouse his mind from its besotted stupefaction.

“Swollen with pride, into the snare I fell

Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,

Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life,

At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge

Of all my strength in the lascivious lap

Of a deceitful concubine.”—Milton, Sams. Agon.

If he thrice proved his vast strength, he also thrice proved his immense folly. To use his strength in the mere saving of his own life was to squander it, and now, “as if possessed by insanity, he madly trifles with the key of his secret. He risks even the tampering with his hair. From this there is but one step to the final catastrophe” (Ewald).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And she fastened it with the pin ... - The meaning of the verses seems to be that the seven long plaits, in which Samson's hair was arranged, were to be woven as a woof into the threads of a warp which stood prepared on a loom in the chamber, which loom Delilah fastened down with a pin, so as to keep it firm and immoveable. But Samson, when he awoke, tore up the pin from its socket, and went away with the loom and the pin fastened to his hair.

The beam - Rather, the "loom," or "frame." The beam is the wooden revolving cylinder, on which the cloth is rolled as fast as it is woven, the Hebrew word for which 1 Samuel 17:7; 1 Chronicles 11:23; 1 Chronicles 20:5 is quite different from that here used.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. she pressed him daily with her words—Though disappointed and mortified, this vile woman resolved to persevere; and conscious how completely he was enslaved by his passion for her, she assailed him with a succession of blandishing arts, till she at length discovered the coveted secret.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Being tormented by two contrary and violent passions; desire to gratify her whom he so much doted upon, and fear of betraying himself to utmost hazard. But being deserted by God, it is no wonder that he chooseth the worst part.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him,.... Lay at him day after day to communicate the secret to him, gave him no rest, but was incessant in her applications to him:

so that his soul was vexed unto death: could hardly bear to live, but wished to die, being in the utmost perplexity what to do between two different passions, love and fear; on the one hand chained by his lust to this harlot, that was continually teasing him, and whom he had not an heart to leave, or otherwise that would have cleared him of his difficulties; and on the other hand, should he disclose the secret, he feared, and was in danger of losing his strength, in which his glory lay: or"his soul was shortened unto death'' (c);it was the means of shortening his days, and hastening his death. Abarbinel thinks that Samson was sensible of this, that his days were short, and the time of his death at hand; which made him the more willing to impart the secret. This may put in mind of the story of Milo, a man famous for his great strength, said to carry an ox upon his shoulders a furlong without breathing; of whom it is reported, that none of his adversaries could deliver themselves out of his hands, but his whore could, often contending with him; hence it is observed of him, that he was strong in body, but not of a manly soul (d); and there are many other things said (e) of him concerning his great strength, which seem to be taken from this history of Samson.

(c) "abbreviata est", Montanus, Drusius. So Munster. (d) Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 24. (e) Vid. Pausan. Eliac. 2. sive. l. 6. p. 309.

Geneva Study Bible

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. she pressed him] Cf. Jdg 14:17. When it came to testing the higher kind of strength, Samson failed. ‘I to myself was false ere thou to me’; Milton, Samson Agonistes, 824.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - So that. Omit so. The meaning is, that in consequence of her daily solicitation his soul was vexed (Judges 10:16) to death - literally, was so short, so impatient, as to be at the point to die. Judges 16:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With such words as these she plagued him every day, so that his soul became impatient even to death (see Judges 10;16). The ἁπ. λεγ. אלץ signifies in Aramaean, to press or plague. The form is Piel, though without the reduplication of the ל and Chateph-patach under (see Ewald, 90, b.).