Judges 16

1 And Samson went to Gaza, and he saw a prostitute there, and he went in to her. 2 And it was reported to the men of Gaza that Samson had come there; and they surrounded him and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate, and they kept still all night, saying, “Until the dawn breaks — and then we will kill him.” 3 And Samson slept until midnight; and he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate together with the two posts, and lifted them up with the bar and laid them on his shoulders, and he went up to the top of the mountain that faces Hebron and set them down there.

4 And after this he loved a woman in Alsorech, and her name was Delilah. [a] 5 And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Deceive him, and see where his great strength lies, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him and bring him low; and each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” [b]

6 And Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, please, where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound so as to be brought low.” 7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been spoiled, then I will be weak and be like any other man.” 8 And the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been spoiled, and she bound him with them. 9 And the ambush was sitting there for her in the inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” And he snapped the bowstrings the way a strand of tow is snapped when it catches the smell of fire; and his strength was not found out.

10 And Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have tricked me and told me lies. Now tell me what you may be bound with.” 11 And he said to her, “If they tie me fast with new ropes that have never had work done with them, then I will be weak and be like any other man.” 12 And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them; and the ambush came out of the inner room. And she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” And he snapped them off his arms like a thread.

13 And Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have tricked me and told me lies. Tell me, please, what you may be bound with.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web and fasten them with the pin into the wall, then I will be weak, like any other man.” 14 And while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web and fastened them with the pin into the wall. And she said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” And he woke out of his sleep and pulled the pin of the weaving out of the wall.

15 And Delilah said to Samson, “How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? This third time you have tricked me, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and hemmed him in, he lost heart, to the point of death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No iron has come on my head, because I have been one holy to God from my mother’s womb. If then I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will be weak and be like all other men.” [c]

18 And Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, and she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this one time more, because he has told me all his heart.” And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and brought the silver in their hands. 19 And Delilah put Samson to sleep on her knees, and she called a man, and he shaved off the seven locks of his head. And she began to bring him low, and his strength left him.

20 And Delilah said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” And he woke out of his sleep and said, “I will go out as I did before, and shake myself free.” And he did not know that the Lord had gone away from him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters; and he was grinding in the prison house. 22 And the hair of his head began to grow again, after it had been shaved.

23 And the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to make merry. And they said, “The god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24 And the people saw him and sang praise to their god: “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the man who laid our land waste and who multiplied our slain.” 25 And when their heart was merry, they said, “Call Samson out of the guardhouse, and let him make sport before us.” And they called Samson out of the prison house, and he made sport before them; and they struck him with their hands and set him between the pillars.

26 And Samson said to the young man who was holding his hand, “Let me go, and let me feel the pillars that the house rests on, and I will lean on them.” 27 And the house was full of men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there; and on the roof were about seven hundred men and women, watching Samson’s sport. [d] 28 And Samson wept before the Lord and said, “Lord Adonai, remember me now, I beg you, and give me strength this one time more, O God, and let me pay the Philistines back one repayment for my two eyes.”

29 And Samson took hold of the two pillars of the house, the ones the house stood on, and leaned on them, and he held one with his right hand and one with his left. 30 And Samson said, “Let my soul die with the Philistines.” And he heaved with strength, and the house fell on the rulers and on all the people who were in it. And the dead whom Samson put to death in his death were more than those he put to death in his life. [e] 31 And his brothers and his father’s house went down and took him; and they went up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.