Judges 16

Samson has a weakness - Philistine women. To him, they are blond cheerleaders who become masseuses, like to cook, and don't mind going to the store just to buy you beer.

He goes to the Philistine city of Gaza to visit a prostitute. Samson, you know they want to kill you, right? Samson waxes between arrogance and extreme fear, this is a moment of arrogance.

Word spreads around the city that he is there and they plan to attack him at dawn. He either gets wind of this or wants to demonstrate to the Philistines, so he gets up at midnight, tears the gates of the city off their hinges and drags them to the top of a hill.

At some point, Samson falls in love with a woman named Delilah. I think it is assumed that she is Philistine, but it is not stated as such. Her being Philistine would fit a pattern, but also her later actions seem to suggest she is not Hebrew. But who knows.

The Philistines hatch a plan to give her money if she can figure out the secret of his strength. She nags him and he tells her various lies, each of which she tries and his strength do not leave him.

Women can make otherwise intelligent guys do really stupid things.

Eventually, he gives in - a haircut will make him weak. Uh oh. Does he not know that she will do this?

She cajoles him to sleep on her lap. She summons in a barber who cuts his hair and he becomes like a normal human. The Philistines arrest him, drag him off as a prison, and blind him.

Later on, the Philistines make him the showcase at a temple to Dagon (their god) during a big festival. They claim that Dagon delivered Samson. No, you found his weakness for women and bribed the one he liked. Meanwhile, his hair has grown back.

He has an assistant help put his hands on the supporting columns of the temple. He asks God for strength one last time. He breaks the columns and the temple collapses, killing Sampson and 3,000 Philistines.

About his hair, he loses his strength if he gets a haircut. In the discussion with Delilah, he says that a razor has "never" cut his hair. I think this is a half-truth. It is true he never gets normal haircuts. However, as a Nazarite, he actually must cut his hair if he comes in contact with a dead body. I think this explains why Samson disappears after killing groups of Philistines.

The first record of that is when he kills 30 people at the wedding feast. He then disappears for an unknown period of time and then reappears at harvest time and wants his wife back. I think what is unstated is that he has had to cut his hair in the meantime as part of the Nazarite ritual and then waited for it to grow back before reappearing among the Philistines. Otherwise, he has regular human strength and an easy target for the Philistines. Something similar happened when he killed the 1,000 with the donkey jawbone. He goes into hiding and cannot find water, so God splits the rock.

It also might explain why he chooses to burn the fields with the foxes with torches tied to them. There is nothing "unclean" in that so he would not have to cut his hair and lose his strength.

It also would explain his seeming cowardice at times. I think those moments happen when he has had to cut his hair and is waiting for it to grow back. At those times, he is vulnerable and he knows the Philistines are hunting for him.