64 JEREMY SCHIPPER In v. 10, Delilah asks once again how Samson can be bound. He replies, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like another person” (v. 11; emphasis added). Again, Samson’s use of the third-person plural suggests awareness that Philistine captivity remains the conversation’s subtext. Despite the fact that Delilah, rather than the Philistines, binds him on both occasions, he has good reason for concern. Each time that she binds him, Delilah says to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson” (vv. 9a.12a). Nevertheless, it is unclear whether he discovers the potential Philistine ambush, since Samson and the Philistines may not actually confront each other on either occasion. In v. 9, although the narrator states “[the Philistines who were] lying in wait [bra; cf. 16,2] remained in an inner chamber ”, the narrator gives no indication as to where Samson and Delilah are when she binds him. Since Samson was awake both times that Delilah binds him, it would be an ineffective ambush if they were all in the same room. In contrast to the battle in 15,14-15, when Samson breaks out of his bondage in 16,9.12, the narrator gives no indication that the Philistines confronted him or that Samson fought them off. Samson has no further direct contact with the Philistines until they capture him after his haircut (16,21). After Delilah binds him the second time, v. 12 reports that she “said to him, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ But the men lying in wait [bda ; cf. 16,2.9] remained in an inner chamber” 10. Once again, Samson easily frees himself from his bondage, but the text does not indicate that Samson confronted any Philistines. After these two occasions, Samson does not necessarily know that the Philistine threat is real. Having tested her twice, he may have concluded that her statement, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson”, is not an urgent warning. Samson may interpret it as nothing more than part of a “love game” after all. Samson’s response to Delilah’s third attempt to find his secret supports the idea that Samson no longer feels the threat of capture by the Philistines. In v. 13, he switches from the third-person plural to the second-person feminine singular when he tells her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like everyone else” (emphasis added). Rather than showing his previous concern over capture by another party, he now seems to play a two-person game that only involves Delilah and himself. The phrase, “rdjb bçy brahw” is a disjunctive clause which suggests a 10 contrast. In 2 Sam 11,1, the narrator uses a similar disjunctive construction to note that David remained in Jerusalem (μlçwryb bçy dwdw) while Joab and his army went out to war.