Judges 16:4 (DBY)

Passage

And it came to pass afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:2 [And it was told] the Gazathites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they surrounded [him], and laid wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning light we will kill him.

Judges 16:3 And Samson lay till midnight; and he arose at midnight, and seized the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and tore them up with the bar, and put [them] upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

Judges 16:4 And it came to pass afterwards that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Judges 16:5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Persuade him, and see in what his great strength is, and with what we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to overpower him; and we will each give thee eleven hundred silver-pieces.

Judges 16:6 Then Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, in what is thy great strength, and with what thou mightest be bound to overpower thee.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "came", "pass", "afterwards", "loved", "woman", "valley", "sorek", and "whose". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "came" and "pass", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And Samson lay till midnight and he..." into verse 5's "And the lords of the Philistines came...", so "came" and "pass" belong inside that flow. In Judges context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "came" and "pass" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.