Judges 16:4 (WEB)

Passage

It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:2 The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.”

Judges 16:3 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

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

Judges 16:5 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

Judges 16:6 Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "came", "pass", "afterward", "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 "Samson lay until midnight and arose at..." into verse 5's "The lords of the Philistines came up...", 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.