Judges 16

16 ¹ Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he was intimate with her. ² When the people of Gaza heard, "Samson has come here," they surrounded the place, waiting for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him." ³ Samson lay there until midnight. At midnight he rose, grabbed the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up with the bar, set them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill facing Hebron.

⁴ After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The Philistine rulers came to her and said, "Lure him and learn where his great strength lies, and how we can overpower and bind him to subdue him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

⁶ Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me where your great strength lies, and how you could be tied up and subdued."

⁷ Samson told her, "If they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, I'll grow weak and be like any other man."

⁸ Then the Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she tied him with them. ⁹ Now she had men lying in wait in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, "You've mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me how you can be tied up."

¹¹ He told her, "If they tie me tight with new ropes never used, I'll become weak, like any man."

¹² Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them, saying, "Samson, the Philistines are on you!" Men lay in wait in the inner room. But he tore the ropes off his arms like thread.

¹³ Delilah said to Samson, "You've mocked me and lied to me all this time. Tell me how you can be tied up." He said to her, "Weave the seven braids of my head into the loom's fabric and pin it tight, and I'll be as weak as any man."

¹⁴ She fastened it with the pin and told him, "Samson, the Philistines are on you!" But he woke from his sleep and pulled out the pin, the loom, and the fabric.

¹⁵ She said, "How can you say 'I love you' when your heart isn't with me? Three times you've mocked me and not told me where your great strength lies."

¹⁶ When she pressed him hard with her words day after day and kept urging him, he grew so tired of it that he wished he were dead. ¹⁷ So he told her his whole heart: "No razor has touched my head, for I am a Nazirite of our Father from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength leaves me, and I become weak, like any other man."

¹⁸ When Delilah saw he had told her all his heart, she sent for the Philistine rulers: "Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart." So they came up to her with the silver in their hands. ¹⁹ She lulled him to sleep on her knees, called a man, and had him shave the seven braids of his head. She began to subdue him, and his strength left him. ²⁰ She said, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He woke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know our Father had left him.

²¹ The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. They bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground grain in the prison. ²² But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Father Strengthens Samson Once More

²³ The Philistine rulers gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has handed Samson our enemy over to us." ²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has handed over our enemy, who ravaged our land and multiplied our slain."

²⁵ When their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson to entertain us." So they brought Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. They stood him between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson told the boy holding his hand, "Let me feel the pillars the house rests on, so I can lean on them." ²⁷ The house was full of men and women; all the Philistine rulers were there, and on the roof about three thousand men and women watched Samson perform. ²⁸ Then Samson called to our Father: "O Sovereign Father, remember me, please. Strengthen me just this once, that with one blow I may bring justice on the Philistines for my two eyes." ²⁹ Samson grasped the two central pillars supporting the house and braced against them, his right hand on one, his left on the other. ³⁰ Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." He pushed with all his strength, and the house fell on the rulers and all the people in it. So he killed more at his death than in his life.

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