Although Delilah is often understood as either a prostitute or as Samson’s second wife, the text does not support either identification. However, the Delilah episode mirrors that of Samson’s interaction with the prostitute at Gaza in Judg 16:1–3. The two accounts are a single unit, linked by the Philistines’ attempts to subdue Samson. In Judges 16:1–3 the residents of Gaza set an ambush for Samson while he is visiting a prostitute there. After the Gazites fail to capture Samson, the “lords of the Philistines” approach Delilah and bribe her to betray Samson, instructing her: “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver” (Judg 16:5 ESV).

The condition of living under divine rule; as an ethical term, the belief that God is ultimate source of moral authority, and hence that revelation, rather than reason, is the central locus for ethical guidance. Under this broader meaning, theonomy can denote a variety of ethical proposals, although it is most often used to refer to theological voluntarism, i.e., the teaching that moral standards arise solely from the divine will, in contrast to naturalism or the idea that ethical norms are inherent in the nature of things.

The approach to ethical reflection in which moral and ethical principles are derived from a source outside the individual, such as revelation or an authoritative institution.

Literally, “self law” or “self rule,” and hence the independent exercise of an individual or community’s will leading to moral claims that are seen to be determined by the individual. In general, autonomy—which is often viewed as the opposite of heteronomy and is sometimes contrasted to theonomy—entails the rejection of all moral claims deemed to arise from a source that is external to the individual or community or to which the individual or community does not have direct access.