So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them: So renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction here. As is often the case in Hebrew, the narrative “mirrors” the dialogue and the same vocabulary is used. See verse 16.11. For bound him with them, see verse 16.8.

And said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!”: See verse 16.9. Certainly there is a time lapse between the time Delilah binds Samson and the time she cries out.

And the men lying in wait were in an inner chamber: See verse 16.9. The Hebrew expression here is shorter than the one in the previous incident, but the vocabulary and their meaning is essentially the same.

But he snapped the ropes off his arms: As in the previous incident, Samson snapped the ropes that bound him. See verse 16.9. However, here the narrator adds a new element: off his arms. The Hebrew word for arms can refer to either a person’s arms or wrists (see verse 15.14). The narrator does not specify whether his arms are tied down to his sides, or whether his arms are tied at the wrists behind or in front of him.

Like a thread: The Hebrew word for thread is different than the one for “string” in verse 16.9, but it has a similar meaning. In many languages this comparison may need to be made more explicit, for example, “He snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were made of [a very fine] thread.” In some languages it may also be necessary to add that the ropes “fell off,” for example, “But Samson snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were threads, and they fell to the ground.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• So Delilah took some new ropes and very tightly tied him up. Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” As before, an ambush had been set, but Samson broke the ropes on his arms as easily as if they were threads.

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 .