Judges 16:15 (WEB)

Passage

She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”

Nearby Context

Judges 16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.”

Judges 16:14 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.

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

Judges 16:16 When she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was troubled to death.

Judges 16:17 He told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever 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 go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "said", "love", "heart", "mocked", "three", "times", "told", and "where". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "said" and "love", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 14's "She fastened it with the pin and..." into verse 16's "When she pressed him daily with her...", so "said" and "love" 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 "said" and "love" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.