Samson is a Biblical figure who lost his strength when his lover cut off his hair. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6461 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson

Yes, it is from a biblical story as another answer states. May I add that the story is also mentioned in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" ...... You saw her bathing on the roof Your faith was strong but you needed proof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you To a kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

i believe it is about the relationship between two people very much in love. and the cutting of his hair is significant to their relationship losing its spark, losing its power(strength) referring back to the biblical story of samson while after his hair was cut ..he had lost all his strength and became weak..just like the their relationship after his hair had been cut. or another interpretation could be that its the love story about deliah and samson that was never mentioned in the bible...and how deliah was sent to find the source of his power(ie. cuting his hair) and succeeding..but also falling in love with him as that would be her sweetest downfall is how she fell in love with him .

This song REFERS to the biblical story about Samson, but it is NOT about it, it clearly states: "The Bible didn't mention us, not even once." To my perspective, she is just reflecting herself in the story as a mirror, and even though she finds the story not perfectly analog, the story serves as a context for what she means to say, only as a point of reference: "we couldn't bring the columns down" therefore, differentiates the ending of the Bible story to hers. Samson story is about love that couldn't go beyond lust. This song's main idea for me is: "my story's love actually goes beyond lust". Samson loses his strength for lust in the original story, here he loses it for love, that's why "he told me that I'd done alright". "I loved you first" makes another contrasting reference as Delilah did not love Samson originally, but in this other story, she loves him besides his "hair [that] was long when we first met" (strength) and with a pair of dull (not aggressive) scissors, she delicately "cuts" it. Definitely a nicely baked, delicious and beautifully tender complex song.

It's about her first love whom she never forgets. Although she recalls all the good stuff, like the hair was long when they first met and then she cut his hair that significantly referring to the relationship that she ended. Eventhough how hard they've tried to regain their strenght they can't bring the hindrance (columns)that is along their way, eventhough the effort is their to settle all the pieces again, they can no longer do it for she has to go! Truly, Delilah here is head over heals to Samson and this time the Samson is Delilah's sweetest downfall...

I believe it is a song about the biblical story--however, i believe that the love mentioned isn't between Samson and Delilah, it is between Samson and the servant who delilah orders to cut off Samson's hair. I believe that this is true, because it refrences being forgotten in the bible. Also, the line "I loved you first" makes sense because it could be in reference to the attention Delilah got, and the jealousy that the servant feels about that.

This isn't my answer, but i don't think i could write it better so i'm gonna put it down here. It's by a 'buffyx' on the SongMeanings website. It makes sence to me. It's a bit long, but the insight it brings is worth it! "I went and read some about the story of Samson and Delilah, and I think it gave me more insight into this song. According to the biblical story, Samson was given extraordinary physical strength through God. First he fell in love with a woman named Timnah, a Philistine, and weds her-- at the wedding reception, he promises a group of Philistines that he will provide them with thirty sets of clothes if they can solve a riddle. They are unable to solve it, but they implore Timnah to get the answer from him-- she does, and tells them, and Samson becomes furious because he doesn't have clothing to give to them. He leaves town and kills thirty other men in a nearby village, steals their clothing, but when he returns, Timnah is now married to a friend of his. Enraged, he ultimately ends up killing a thousand of the Philistines. When he goes to Gaza, Samson meets and falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines convince her to get him to tell her the source of his power-- he tells her it's his hair (however, it was not *really* in his hair, but because he had already broken two laws of the Nazarite. this was enough for God to take his power away from him). Delilah cuts off all of Samson's hair, and then he is captured by the Philistines, who gouge out his eyeballs. However, the way he dies is by pulling down the two central pillars in a temple. This seems to be referred to in the song with the lines "Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down / Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one." I think the narrator of this song-- Delilah-- is lamenting about what could have been. Because she secretly did love Samson. All of the stories say that Samson loved Delilah, and make no mention of her returning the feelings. The lyric "I loved you first" seems to imply that not only did she love him back, but she loved him before he even loved her. As I see it, this song is about how she imagined a different ending for their tragic romance. In this version, after she cuts his hair, he just eats a piece of bread, tells her it's okay, it's all right, nothing has changed. They make love and get a happy ending. And in her version, the Bible doesn't even mention them because what she did didn't matter-- he didn't change history, and they just loved each other, quietly."

well the bible doesnt mention love between two women. Just an idea

it's about her domesticating a man

I dont know the whole truth to this,but as i heard it-Samson is a mixture between the story of samson n delilah and her friend who she loved dying from cancer-"Your hair was long when we first met Samson went back to bed Not much hair left on his head He ate a slice of wonder bread and went right back to bed And history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once"-his hair was long till chemo-tired all the time-bread was all he could stomache without getting sick-and as he lost his hair n strength she was reminded of samson losing his hair n strenght-the history books n bible not mentioning them is her friend passing and the world not noticing-like i said though,i dont know how true this meaning is