(Judges 16:4-22 RSV) After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
{5} And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."
{6} And Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me wherein your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you."
{7} And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings which have not been dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
{8} Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
{9} Now she had men lying in wait in an inner chamber. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the bowstrings, as a string of tow snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
{10} And Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies; please tell me how you might be bound."
{11} And he said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
{12} So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And the men lying in wait were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
{13} And Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me, and told me lies; tell me how you might be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
{14} So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
{15} And 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 you have not told me wherein your great strength lies."
{16} And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.
{17} And he told her all his mind, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
{18} When Delilah saw that he had told her all his mind, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all his mind." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands.
{19} She made him sleep upon her knees; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.
{20} And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." And he did not know that the LORD had left him.
{21} And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
{22} But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved *** Delilah was a woman who dwelt in the valley of Sorek. She was loved by the mighty Samson (Judges 16:4-18). There seems to be little doubt that she was a Philistine. **** The story of Samson and Delilah depicts the classic example of the "temptress who betrays her lover for money" (Exum 134). Chaucer chose an interesting location in The Canterbury Tales to refer to the tale of Samson and Delilah. The reference to Delilah's trickery follows a reference to Jesus Christ, and precedes the story of Heracles' death. Critics often compare Samson to Jesus Christ and to Heracles based on similarities between Samson and the two others. Both Samson and Heracles have twelve adventures and posses amazing strength (Kraft 200). Like Jesus, Samson is "devoted to God before birth" (Kraft 200). The language used in the tale of Samson in the bible resembles the language used in various passages of the bible to describe Jesus (Kraft 200). These comparisons may explain why Chaucer chose to include the tale of Samson, references to Jesus Christ, and an account of Heracles' death in the close relation to one another within The Canterbury Tales.
Judges 13-16 in the bible explains the story of Samson. Samson was a Nazirite, therefore he had a certain code by which to live his life. Samson only abided by one of these rules; the rule which stated he should never cut his hair. Samson's golden tresses are what supplied his amazing strength. If Samson lost his hair, he lost his strength. The Philistines wanted to defeat Samson, but the only way was to learn his weakness and use it against him. The Philistines bribed Delilah, Samson's lover, with an insane amount of money, almost four thousand dollars, to tell them Samson's weakness (Kraft 199). Delilah, whose name means loose hair, made four attempts to solve the mystery of Samson's strength. Her tactic involved using guilt to force Samson to reveal his secret. She claimed that if Samson did not tell her, then he really did not love her (Exum 133-134). Samson finally tells Delilah, and one night while he slept in her lap she chopped off his hair leaving him helpless. She then turns him over to the Philistines who blind him, and force him to perform physical labor (Kraft 199).
Stories of manipulative women causing the downfall of a hero are plentiful in the bible. The usual structure of these tales are as follows: a women pretends to love the hero so the hero surrenders himself to her, and by doing so places himself in grave danger (Crenshaw 952). Delilah provides readers of Chaucer with the classic portrait of women as cold, calculating, greedy, and unloving.