Judges 16

1Samson went to Gaza and saw a woman, a prostitute, there and went in to her.

2The Gazites heard, "Samson has come here." They surrounded him and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate, keeping silent all night, saying, "Until morning light, we will kill him."

3Samson lay down until midnight, rose at midnight, seized the doors of the city gate and the two posts, wrenched them out with the bar, placed them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.

4Afterward he fell in love with a woman in the Sorek Valley whose name was Delilah.

5The Philistine lords came to her and said, "Lure him and discover wherein lies his great strength, and how we can overpower him to bind and humble him; we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

6Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength great, and by what you might be bound to humble you."

7Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not dried, then I will be weak and become like any other man."

8The Philistine lords brought her seven fresh cords that had not dried, and she bound him with them.

9Ambushers waited with her in the inner chamber. She said to him, "Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He snapped the cords, as a thread of tow snaps when it touches fire, so his strength remained unknown.

10Delilah said to Samson, "See, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me with what you might be bound."

11He said to her, “If they bind me with fresh ropes that no work has been done on them, then I will grow weak and become like any other man.”

12Delilah took new cords and bound him with them, then said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Those lying in ambush stayed in the inner chamber. He snapped them off his arms like a thread.

13Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have deceived me and spoken lies to me; tell me how you might be bound." He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web."

14She drove the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin of the loom and the web.

15She said to him, "How do you say you love me when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and have not told me wherein your great strength lies."

16When she distressed him day after day with her words and urged him, his soul grew so impatient it longed for death.

17He revealed all his heart to her and said to her, "No razor has come upon my head, for I am a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will depart from me, I will become weak, and be like any other man."

18Delilah saw that he had revealed everything in his heart to her, so she sent and summoned the Philistine rulers, saying, "Come up this time, for he has revealed everything in his heart to me." Then the Philistine rulers came to her and brought the silver in their hands.

19She put him to sleep on her knees, called for a man, and shaved the seven locks of his head; she began to afflict him, and his strength departed from him.

20She said, "Philistines are upon you, Samson." He awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as on previous occasions and shake myself." But he did not know that Yahweh had departed from him.

21The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze chains, and he ground in the house of the bound prisoners.

22After he was shaved, the hair of his head began to grow.

23The lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, for they said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand."

24When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has given our enemy, the destroyer of our land who multiplied our slain, into our hand."

25When their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson to play for us." They called Samson from the prison, and he played before them. They set him between the pillars.

26Samson said to the boy holding him by the hand, "Release me, and let me touch and feel the pillars on which the house stands, so I can lean on them."

27The house was full of men and women, and all the Philistine lords were there; about three thousand men and women watched Samson sport from the roof.

28Samson called to Yahweh and said, "Lord Yahweh, please remember me and please strengthen me just this once, O God, that I may get one act of vengeance from the Philistines for my two eyes."

29Samson took hold of both middle pillars the house stood firm upon and leaned on them, one with his right hand and one with his left.

30Samson said, "Let my soul die with the Philistines." He bowed with all his strength, and the house fell on the rulers and all the people who were in it. Those he killed at his death outnumbered those he killed in his life.

31His brothers and his father's entire household came down, took him, carried him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.