Delilah

Some say that the name could possibly originate from the Hebrew or Arabic word for night ("laylah"), since the story of Samson is a likely analogy for the 'weaker' moon eclipsing the sun.

A weak female who betrays a great man. It sounds pretty, but the meaning is unacceptable.

The Bible actually says very little about Delilah's background. It does not say she is a prostitute or that she was Philistine. In fact, the Bible never says they had sex or any kind of relationship. The Bible does say Samson had visited a prostitute (not Delilah) and was fairly destructive before he fell in love with Delilah. His moral character is hardly flawless. When he visited the prostitute, the Philistines tried to ambush Samson, but it didn't work. This seems to suggest Delilah was not in fact a prostitute, but love was the way to get to Samson. Philistine leaders demanded Delilah perform a task, probably knowing that Samson loved her. Had she refused, she probably would have lost her life, given what we know of a woman's status in those times. Delilah didn't love Samson and he wasn't exactly a beacon of purity, so it was probably a pretty easy decision when she was weighing her life and his. All we know is she was a woman who betrayed Samson and lived another day. She saved herself. Then her story ends. We don't know what becomes of her later. It's silly to show prejudice over a name that's widely misinterpreted.

Objectively speaking, the name Delilah is unequivocally the worst name for any gender inclusive of all species. Whether you believe the Bible to be: literal, figurative, hybrid, or disbelieve altogether, the Bible is factually the most sold and read book in the World. The name Delilah can first be found in the Old Testament, in which Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (the most practiced religions in Western civilization) all accept and incorporate specified sections of the Old Testament. In the Book of Judges, Samson is the 15th Judge of Israel around 1154BC to 1124BC. Samson is synonymous with divinely inspired leader with renowned strength. He was a Nazirite, which literally translates to concentrated to the service of God. Scholars still debate ‘Philistine’ in regard to history, geography, genetics, etc. Thus, generally speaking, a Philistine is accepted as ‘from another nation’ meaning not people of God. Instead, they worship Dagon, the pagan mythological Fish deity. Whether metaphorical or not, Dagon is a false idol as believed by the Ancients of Israel or people of God. Delilah is a prostitute for the Philistines, in which she accepts 1,100 pieces of silver to figure out Samson’s strength. Contemporary biblical scholars note that Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of Silver. Samson falls in love with Delilah and they marry. She never loved him, and with premeditation she intentionally lies, cheats, manipulates, deceives, manipulates, imprisons, enslaves, gouges his eyes out, for the sake of materialism/idolatry. The nefarious wickedness is only paralleled to one other biblical name figure, Judas the Iscariot, the Betrayer of Jesus in the New Testament. Unfortunately, the entirety of my explanation is not based on personal subjectivity. I would find it vehemently repulsive to Google/Wikipedia/Ask Siri or Alexa my first name to discover my parents named me [first thing to come up if you were to type what does Delilah mean? Per she knows.com] Amorous (lustful, showing sexual desire), Delight (?), languishing (failing to make progress or be successful, weaken/waste away, seductress), and immediately going, then immediately mentioning the inescapable tricking Samson and betraying him in the Old Testament. Furthermore, there is excessive plethora of famous Renaissance Art, specifically Baroque paintings that depict Delilah and the Philistines. The context of Philistine has absolutely no respect to race, creed, religion, ancestry, etc. They are simply believed as in opposition of all things good or divine, and even have a connotation that makes it to the punchline of jokes for being unsophisticated/uncultured/ignorant. Ironically, cyber journalists mention that archaeology refuted such claims because archaeologists have discovered ‘perfumes and weapons’ in tombs believed to be of Philistine descent. Precisely, proving the point of worshiping false idols, ie materialism over morality in Roman Catholicism, a faction of the largest religion in the world, Delilah epitomizes a ‘mortal sin.’ You can read further into it, if interested, but simply her intent was premeditated, analogous to murder in the First Degree compared to Second Degree. Most importantly, the objective reality among my aggregate statement is from the perspective of all religions and including atheist. Certainty, you can find scholarly articles comparing the seven abominations of Delilah to the devil and evils in contemporary society. However, Eastern Religion, specifically Buddhism is a spiritual philosophy found in the pursuit to comprehend truth of suffering in the world. Meditation enables us to simplify the answers. The most prominent aspects of parenting is overwhelming our children with all things great and wanting the best, and instilling morals and values among the youth to make the world a better place. The previous statement is not exclusive to any belief system. Society is facing an abundance of evils in the world rooted in deceit, manipulation, lies, that further polarized and divides humanity, not unites one another in pursuit of solutions. I couldn’t help but notice the movie, The Joker, was an allegory of the world we live in. Problems are omnipotent, as we continually debate subjectivity of the problem, rather than discuss objectively the solution. Quite obviously, I believe naming a child Delilah is not cute, and incomprehensible. I would find it to be rooted in pure ignorance, or absent of care toward morality. Again, the first Delilah is the most wicked figure of the Old Testatment, in which naming a child the villain of good shows unfathomable ignorance. An illogical argument would be Charles isn’t a bad name just because Charles Manson was a serial killer. So why would Delilah be a bad name? This is the very first Delilah ever. She literally epitomizes that exact and direct literal meaning. Peers will certainly notice due to the popularity of the Bible and Western religions. Again, that is not an exaggeration, just ask Siri or Alexa who is Delilah. Fortunately, we can change our names, and mistakes happen. Reasoning to further rationalize such a name is beyond the realm of such a simple conversation of basic definitions and history.

Biblical scholars tend to believe that the story of Samson and Delilah is a retelling of an ancient Middle Eastern fable which is pagan in origin and far older than the Bible.

---

The fable is one about the sun and the moon - note that Samson means "sun" and Delilah sounds similar to the Arabic names meaning "night".

---

No doubt Delilah sapping Samson's strength is just a simple tale of the "weak" moon seemingly overpowering the "strong" sun each night.

Technically his hair was not the source of his strength, his hair represented the oath he had taken and in that way was set apart for God. It wasn't the haircut, it was the broken oath.