“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.”
- KJV And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
- NKJV Then 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.”
- NASB Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.”
- NLT Then Delilah pouted, “How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Delilah charges that Samson cannot truly love her while hiding his secret, accusing him of mocking her three times. She weaponizes the language of love.
Overview
Delilah's manipulation echoes the emotional pressure Samson's first wife used (14:16). By tying his love to total disclosure, she exploits his affection against his consecration. The verse exposes how counterfeit love can be a tool of betrayal, and how Samson's misdirected desire leaves him vulnerable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Judg 14:16Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
- John 15:10If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
- Prov 23:26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
- 1 Jn 2:15–16Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- John 14:15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- 2 Cor 5:14–15For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.
- Prov 5:3–14Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
- Song 8:6–7Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all.
- John 14:21–24Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- Gen 29:20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.
- 2 Sam 16:17“Is this the loyalty you show your friend?” Absalom replied. “Why did you not go with your friend?”
- 1 Sam 15:13–14When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”
- 1 Jn 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
- Prov 2:16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
- Deut 6:5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 16:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.