What is the context?
Delilah presses Samson day after day, questioning his love until he tells her what is in his heart. He connects his uncut hair with being a Nazirite to God from his mother’s womb. נָזִיר, nazir (nah-ZEER), means someone consecrated or devoted. Brown–Driver–Briggs specifically identifies Samson’s dedication from birth, in contrast with the usual voluntary vow for a limited period.
After he falls asleep on her lap, she calls a man to shave off his seven braids. His strength leaves him. Samson expects to escape as before, but the narrator explains what he does not know: the LORD has departed from him. The hair belongs to his consecration; the power is God’s.
The Philistines seize him, gouge out his eyes, take him to Gaza, bind him in bronze shackles, and make him grind grain in prison. Then comes a brief detail that leaves room for what follows: his hair begins growing again. The account has not ended with his capture.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley understands the hair as a condition attached to Samson’s calling, rather than a substance that produces strength on its own. Henry likewise treats the loss of strength as the consequence of abandoning his dedication to God. Both read his confidence that he can escape again as a warning about not recognizing what has been lost.
They also read the returning hair as a sign of repentance and renewed mercy. The narrator reports the growth without recording a prison confession; the next scene supplies Samson’s prayer. Their reading connects this detail with his later dependence on God, rather than treating hair growth as an automatic way to restore divine power.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The New Testament includes Samson among people commended for faith in Hebrews 11:32–40. His failures are serious, yet they are not the whole account of his relationship with God. Hebrews names him without telling readers to imitate each choice he made.
The next paragraph directs the reader’s attention to Jesus: Hebrews 12:1–3 calls us to lay aside entangling sin, endure, and fix our eyes on the One who begins and completes our faith. The larger story gives both warning and hope, with Jesus as the person to follow.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.