And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!”: See verse 16.9. Delilah says the same thing as she did in the previous three incidents (verse 16.9, 12, 14), but the situation has changed drastically. The repetition builds suspense here, so this stylistic feature should be maintained.
And he awoke from his sleep: See verse 16.14.
And said: Samson is the speaker, but here the verb said probably introduces what he is thinking internally, so it may be rendered “thought” (New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation) or “said to himself.”
I will go out as at other times: Samson thinks he can deal with the enemy as he has done in the past. I will go out describes his imagined escape or his plan to run out of Delilah’s house. For the key Hebrew verb rendered go out (yatsaʾ), see verse 1.24, where it is translated “coming out.” In this context “escape” would be a good rendering. As at other times is literally “as footstep by footstep” (see also verse 20.30-31). The repeated Hebrew noun here is rendered “this once” in verse 16.18, but here it might be translated “as usual” (Revised English Bible) or “as in the past.” A possible model is “I will escape the same way I did before.”
And shake myself free: Samson expects to break free from the Philistine trap once again. The Hebrew verb here carries the sense of shaking off something that is clinging to a person. There is no object given here, but in some languages it may be necessary to provide one. We might say, for example, “and I will free myself from these Philistines” or “I will get away from these Philistines, just as I did before.” Contemporary English Version has “I’ll break loose and escape, just as I always do,” which is a good model. Samson’s direct quote here may be made indirect (see models below), though this style often robs the text of its liveliness.
And he did not know that the LORD had left him: This is a very sad and solemn comment, showing Samson at the lowest point in his life. The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And is better translated “But” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version), since it expresses the contrast between what Samson thought would happen and what was actually the case. He renders an emphatic pronoun in Hebrew, so we might say “But as for Samson, he…” or “Poor Samson, he….” He did not know renders the Hebrew literally. Other possible renderings are “he didn’t realize” (New Living Translation) and “he did not yet understand.”
The LORD had left him is literally “the LORD turned aside from on him.” This is an extremely powerful statement. The audience expects to hear that Samson does not know his hair has been cut, or that his strength has left him. However, the situation is far more serious: Yahweh has abandoned him. Samson’s hair was the symbol of his special relationship to Yahweh (see verse 13.5). Even though Samson did not cut his hair himself, his Nazirite vow has now been broken, so Yahweh’s power is no longer with him. Left renders the same Hebrew verb (sur) translated “leave” in verse 16.17, where Samson had predicted that if his hair were cut, his strength would vanish. Here the verb has an ironic tone, describing the LORD leaving Samson. Revised Standard Version uses a pluperfect tense here to show that the LORD had left Samson before he even realized it. We might say “the LORD was no longer with him,” “Yahweh’s power had already gone [from him],” “Yahweh’s strength was no longer with him,” or “Samson no longer had the LORD’s power with him!”
Translation models for this verse are:
• Then she shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Samson woke up and thought that he would escape like before and shake himself free of the Philistines. What he did not know was that Yahweh’s power had left him.
• Then she cried, “The Philistines are here, Samson!” He woke up, thinking he could shake himself free and escape as he had done in the past. But he did not realize that Yahweh’s power was no longer with him.
Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .