Samson and Delilah

Lucas van Leyden · c. 1507
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Lucas van Leyden engraved this plate around 1507–08, among his earliest. Even so, the folds of the dresses and the patterned armour are cut with great care.

Samson, in armour, sleeps with his head in Delilah’s lap under the trees. She holds a plate with cut locks of his hair. A man peers out of a cave behind her, and Philistine soldiers creep up with halberds and spears.

From the text

She lulled Samson to sleep on her lap (Judges 16:19)

She called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head (Judges 16:19)

“Samson, the Philistines are here!” (Judges 16:20)

The artist’s own

Samson in a decorated breastplate, with a patterned shield beside him

The cut hair on a plate in Delilah’s hand

Woods and a cave instead of a house

Details

Delilah

She holds a plate with cut locks of hair.

Samson

He sleeps in her lap, in armour.

In the cave

A man peers out from behind her.

Philistines

Soldiers with halberds creep through the trees.

Lucas van Leyden, Netherlandish, 1494–about 1533. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1930.527) · Engraving · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Judg 16:19–21And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.