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15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me?[a] Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.” 16 She nagged him[b] every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it.[c] 17 Finally he told her his secret.[d] He said to her, “My hair has never been cut,[e] for I have been dedicated to God[f] from the time I was conceived.[g] If my head[h] were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak and be just like all other men.”

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 16:15 tn Heb “when your heart is not with me.”
  2. Judges 16:16 tn Heb “forced him with her words.”
  3. Judges 16:16 tn Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”
  4. Judges 16:17 tn Heb “all his heart.”
  5. Judges 16:17 tn Heb “a razor has not come upon my head.”
  6. Judges 16:17 tn Or “set apart to God.” Traditionally the Hebrew term נָזִיר (nazir) has been translated “Nazirite.” The word is derived from the verb נָזַר (nazar, “to dedicate; to consecrate; to set apart”).
  7. Judges 16:17 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother.”
  8. Judges 16:17 tn Heb “I.” The referent has been made more specific in the translation (“my head”).