Judges 16:15 (DRB)

Passage

And Dalila said to him: How dost thou say thou lovest me, when thy mind is not with me? Thou hast told me lies these three times, and wouldst not tell me wherein thy greatest strength lieth.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:13 And Dalila said to him again: How long dost thou deceive me, and tell me lies? Shew me wherewith thou mayest be bound. And Samson answered her: If thou plattest the seven locks of my head with a lace, and tying them round about a nail, fastenest it in the ground, I shall be weak.

Judges 16:14 And when Dalila had done this, she said to him: The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And awaking out of his sleep, he drew out the nail with the hairs and the lace.

Judges 16:15 And Dalila said to him: How dost thou say thou lovest me, when thy mind is not with me? Thou hast told me lies these three times, and wouldst not tell me wherein thy greatest strength lieth.

Judges 16:16 And when she pressed him much, and continually hung upon him for many days, giving him no time to rest, his soul fainted away, and was wearied even unto death.

Judges 16:17 Then opening the truth of the thing, he said to her: The razor hath never come upon my head, for I am a Nazarite, that is to say, consecrated to God from my mother's womb: If my head be shaven, my strength shall depart from me, and I shall become weak, and shall be like other men.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "dalila", "said", "dost", "thou", "lovest", and "mind". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "dalila" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 14's "And when Dalila had done this she..." into verse 16's "And when she pressed him much and...", so "dalila" and "said" 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 "dalila" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.