Judges 16:19 (DRB)

Passage

But she made him sleep upon her knees, and lay his head in her bosom. And she called a barber and shaved his seven locks, and began to drive him away, and thrust him from her: for immediately his strength departed from him.

Nearby Context

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.

Judges 16:18 Then seeing that he had discovered to her all his mind, she sent to the princes of the Philistines, saying: Come up this once more, for now he hath opened his heart to me. And they went up, taking with them the money which they had promised.

Judges 16:19 But she made him sleep upon her knees, and lay his head in her bosom. And she called a barber and shaved his seven locks, and began to drive him away, and thrust him from her: for immediately his strength departed from him.

Judges 16:20 And she said: The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And awaking from sleep, he said in his mind: I will go out as I did before, and shake myself, not knowing that the Lord was departed from him.

Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized upon him, and forthwith pulled out his eyes, and led him bound in chains to Gaza, and shutting him up in prison made him grind.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "called", "sleep", "upon", "knees", "head", "bosom", "barber", and "shaved". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "called" and "sleep", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 18's "Then seeing that he had discovered to..." into verse 20's "And she said The Philistines are upon...", so "called" and "sleep" 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 "called" and "sleep" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.