Judges 16:16 (LSB)

Passage

Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.

Judges 16:15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.”

Judges 16:16 Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.

Judges 16:17 So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like every other man.”

Judges 16:18 And Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, so she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hands.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "happened", "pressed", "daily", "words", "urged", "soul", "annoyed", and "death". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "happened" and "pressed", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Then she said to him How can..." into verse 17's "So he told her all that was...", so "happened" and "pressed" 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 "happened" and "pressed" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.