The story of Samson and Delilah is a story of love, deceit and money. I want to begin with Delilah's story. She was a beautiful woman with a deep past and many lovers. She was a Philistine and by tradition, an enemy to any Hebrew. She lived in one of the cities in the valley of Sorek. Delilah chose Samson to be one of her lovers. Samson, a Hebrew warrior had already been married once. That marriage ended in death for his wife and her family. He thought himself to have been the cause of their deaths. Despite his record of violence, or perhaps because of it, he was a 'hero' to the Hebrew settlers. The Hebrew's were trying to find a place for themselves in this land that was already occupied by the Canaanites and Philistines. They looked for a hero and Samson's qualities of strength made him ideal as a fearless warrior who could protect them. The Hebrew settlers saw Samson as enormously strong. Someone they could county on. The people at that time believed this was because of magic or some special secret that gave him extraordinary power. Magic and spells were popular, it was believed that the right magic could protect a person, or help overcome enemies. The leaders of the Philistine cities believed that magic of some kind must be behind Samson's strength, so they decided to find out what that magic was. Some of the leaders were aware that Delilah was with Samson, that gave them and idea. They decided to approached Delilah and offer her a great deal of money, if she would find out the secret of Samson's strength. By this time Samson was in love with Delilah and Samson believed that Delilah was in love with him. But contrary to this, Delilah agreed to help them. She saw that the money they offered her was enough to free her from 'working' for the rest of her life. So she decided to help them, she herself was curious about his strength. Delilah started thinking about the ways she should ask him for his secret. She asked him three different times, on three different occasions what his secret was, and all three times he gave her a false answer. But eventually, he did tell her, what he believed to be true: He believed that his strength came from his long hair, that had never been cut. Delilah still wasn't sure if this was a truthful answer. He was not alone in this belief.