Judges 16

¹ Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and slept with her.

² The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here.” They surrounded him and lay in wait for him all night by the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “At daybreak, we’ll kill him.”

³ Samson lay there until midnight. At midnight he got up, seized the city gate doors and the two doorposts, tore them out, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders. He carried them to the top of the hill facing Hebron.

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

⁵ The Philistine rulers went to her and said, “Persuade him to tell you where his great strength comes from and how we can overpower him, so we can tie him up and subdue him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

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

⁷ Samson said to her, “If they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings that haven’t dried, I’ll become weak and be like any other man.”

⁸ The Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings that hadn’t dried, and she tied him with them.

⁹ Men were lying in wait in her room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches fire. So his strength remained unknown.

¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, “You’ve made fun of me and told me lies. Please tell me now how you can be tied up.”

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

¹² Delilah took new ropes, tied him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Men were lying in wait in the room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

¹³ Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you’ve made fun of me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be tied up.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web.”

¹⁴ She fastened them with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He woke from his sleep and pulled out the pin, the loom, and the web.

¹⁵ She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart isn’t with me? Three times now you’ve made fun of me and haven’t told me where your great strength comes from.”

¹⁶ Day after day she pressed him with her words and wore him down, until he could bear it no longer.

¹⁷ So he opened his whole heart to her and said, “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. I’ll become weak and be like any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had opened his whole heart to her, she sent for the Philistine rulers and said, “Come up this time, because he has opened his whole heart to me.” The Philistine rulers came to her, bringing the silver in their hands.

¹⁹ She made him fall asleep on her knees, called for a man, and shaved off the seven braids of his head. Then she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.

²⁰ She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He woke from his sleep and said, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the LORD had left him.

²¹ The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and took him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze chains, and he was made to grind in the prison.

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

²³ The Philistine rulers gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

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

²⁵ When they were in high spirits, they said, “Bring Samson out to entertain us.” They brought Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. Then they stood him between the pillars.

²⁶ Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars that support the house, so I can lean against them.”

²⁷ The house was full of men and women. All the Philistine rulers were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof, watching Samson perform.

²⁸ Samson cried out to the LORD, “Lord GOD, please remember me. Please strengthen me just this once, O God, so I may take one revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

²⁹ Samson grasped the two central pillars that supported the house and braced himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.

³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his might, and the house fell on the rulers and all the people inside. Those he killed when he died outnumbered those he had killed during his life.

³¹ His brothers and all his father’s family went down, carried him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

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