Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. She said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
"The Philistine princes thought that Samson’s supernatural strength arose from something external, which he wore or carried about with him as an amulet." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 419.] 