Judges 16

1Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her.

2The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “At daybreak we will kill him.”

3But Samson lay there only until midnight. At midnight he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and its two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

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

5The rulers of the Philistines went up to her and said to her, “Coax him, and find out where his great strength comes from and how we can overpower him, so that we may tie him up and subdue him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and how you could be tied up and subdued.”

7Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

8Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.

9She had men lying in wait in an inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a strand of flax snaps when it comes near a flame. So the secret of his strength was not found out.

10Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me and told me lies! Now please tell me how you could be tied up.”

11He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

12So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” The men lying in wait were in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.

13Then Delilah said to Samson, “All this time you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me how you could be tied up.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and fasten it with the pin to the wall, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

14So she lulled him to sleep, wove the seven braids of his head into the fabric, and fastened it with the pin. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom, along with the fabric.

15Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? Three times now you have made a fool of me and have not told me where your great strength comes from.”

16Day after day she pressed him with her words and nagged him, until he was worn out to the point of death.

17So he told her everything that was in his heart. He said to her, “No razor has ever touched my head, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

18When Delilah saw that he had told her everything that was in his heart, she sent for the rulers of the Philistines with this message: “Come up once more, for he has told me everything that is in his heart.” So the rulers of the Philistines came up to her, bringing the silver with them.

19She lulled him to sleep on her lap and called a man, and she had the seven braids of his head shaved off. So she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.

20Then she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up from his sleep and said, “I will go out as I did the other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Yahweh had left him.

21The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was set to grinding grain in the prison.

22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

23Now the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.”

24When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the one who ravaged our land and killed so many of us.”

25When they were in high spirits, they said, “Call Samson, so that he can entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars.

26Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Let me rest, and let me feel the pillars that hold up the building, so that I can lean against them.”

27Now the building was full of men and women. All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.

28Then Samson called out to Yahweh: “Lord Yahweh, please remember me. Please strengthen me just this once, O God, so that with one blow I may take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

29Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that held up the building, bracing himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.

30Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his strength, and the building fell on the rulers and on all the people in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.

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