Judges Chapter 16
1 Then Samson went to Gaza. He saw a harlot there, and went in to her.
2 The Gazites were told saying, Samson has come here. They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night saying, Until the light of the morning, then we will kill him.
3 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and took hold of the leaves of the gate of the city and the two posts, and picked them up, with the bar, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.
4 Afterward, he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Lure him and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, so that we may tie him to afflict him. And each one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
6 Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.
7 Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then I will be weak and be as another man.
8 The lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9 The ambush was sitting for her in the inner room. And she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. He broke the cords like a thread of tow when it smells fire. And his strength was not known.
10 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please, tell me with what you may be bound.
11 He said to her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that have never been used, then I will be weak and be as another man.
12 Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. The ambush was sitting for her in the inner room. He broke them from off his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, You have mocked me until now, and told me lies. Tell me with what you may be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.
14 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And He awakened out of his sleep, and pulled out the pin, the hand loom and the web.
15 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, and your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in what your great strength lies.
16 She distressed him with her words daily and urged him, and his soul was grieved to death.
17 He told her all his heart, and said to her, A razor has not come on my hair, for I am a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak and be like any man.
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she called for the lords of the Philistines saying, Come this once, for he has showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought silver in their hand.
19 She made him sleep upon her knees. And she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
20 She said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. He did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
21 The Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass. He ground in the prison house.
22 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he had been shaven.
23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered in order 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.
24 The people saw him and praised their god. For they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, and the destroyer of our country, who killed many of us.
25 When their hearts were merry, they said, Call for Samson and he will make sport for us. They called for Samson out of the prison house. He made sport for them, and they set him between the pillars.
26 Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, Allow me to feel the pillars upon which the house stands, so that I may lean upon them.
27 Now the house was full of men and women and all the lords of the Philistines were there. About 3,000 men and women were on the roof and watched while Samson made sport.
28 Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I ask you, and strengthen me I ask you only this once O God so that I may at once avenge the Philistines for my two eyes.
29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was held up, one with his right hand and of the other with his left.
30 Then Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines and he bowed mightily and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people in it. The dead he killed at his death were more than those he killed in his life.
31 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down and took him and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel 20 years.