Delilah was a Philistine are inconclusive, while the "Jewish Encyclopedia" says that Delilah was a Philistine in all probability. Dolores G. Kamrada write in "Heroines, Heroes and Deity: Three Narratives of the Biblical Heroic Tradition" that Delilah is similar to Jael, a woman mentioned in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Judges who murders Sisera by driving a tent peg into his head, and frequently compared to the title character of the Book of Judith, who beheads Holofernes; all three women defeat powerful warriors. According to Susan Ackerman, Delilah differs from Jael and Judith in that she "sells
Delilah anyone" but simply "appears in her own right". Conversely, Phillip Lopate writes "while the message of Samson's fall, like Adam's, would seem to be cautionary and misogynistic, underneath we see his time with Delilah as a liberating fantasy...Don't we secretly rejoice at his having the good sense to follow the route of his desire, to free himself from the 'good boy' Nazirite onus by putting himself in temptation's way?" "Haaretz"s Elon Gilad writes "some biblical stories are flat-out cautions against marrying foreign women, none more than the story of Samson", noting that Samson's relationship with Delilah leads to his demise.