Delilah is a biblical character who is notably associated with betrayal and manipulation. She is mentioned in the book of Judges and is believed to have lived in Northern Gaza near the Mediterranean Sea. In Judges 16, it tells us how Delilah’s beauty and cunningness managed to entrap the powerful Hebrew hero Samson.
The story begins by stating that Delilah was paid by the Philistines, the enemies of the Israelites, to seduce Samson in gathering the secret to his great strength. Even though the Philistines were aware that the secret was hidden in Samson’s hair, they employed various methods to drive this information out of him.
For three days and nights, Samson tried to elude Delilah’s attempts to trap him but finally gave in. On the fourth night, under a false assumption of love, Samson told her the truth. He had been a Nazarite, a consecrated being, since birth. As part of his oath, the Nazarites were forbidden to have their hair cut. This is why Samson was so strong—it was because his hair had never been shaved.
Immediately after achieving their goal, Delilah called upon Philistine lords who came armed with razors. In his conclusion of the story, Samson remarks, “if only I had not given her what she asked!”
Delilah’s manipulation tactics could arguably be seen as a preamble to what has now come to be known as “catfishing”. Catfishing is a form of gas-lighting where a person manipulates another using false identities and myths. In some cases, people do it to gain access to an individual’s bank accounts and secrets. In the same light, Delilah’s success in manipulating Samson to extract out of him the source of his strength is consequential of the savvy catfishing that takes place in our world today.
We can also view Delilah’s actions as a representation of how wealth and vanity can often be at the root of all evil. This is manifested in the presumption of the Philistines that wealth and money can buy them the power to manipulate even the strongest of heroes.
The account of Delilah’s betrayal can be seen as a reminder of the consequences of giving in to temptation. Whether from the side of the seductress or from Samson who is seen as the victim, the Biblical text urges us to remain strong even in the presence of inner or external strife.
Hagiography of Delilah in the Christian Historical Tradition
Historically, the narrative of Samson and Delilah has been hailed by the Christian West as a warning against the wiles of a sinful woman. Christian theologians, such as Thomas de Aquino and Hugo de Saint-Victor, often linked Delilah with the temptations of the devil and condemned her as an incarnation of deceit and treachery. In the edgy and religious drama ‘Barabbas’ which was written by Alfed Hinrik Jonsson, Delilah was portrayed as a pitiless character who is almost an agent of the devil, signifying her role in the Biblical text.
In the early 17th century, Delilah was presented by John Milton as a woman of “base and servile nature”. He believed that the moral of the story was to warn against the consequences of copulating with sinful women and sought to use the narrative to discourage any form of carnal
