Judges 16

¹ From here Samson went on to Gaza, and seeing a harlot there he went into her house.

² The news was told to the men of Gaza, ‘Samson has arrived’. They surrounded the place and kept watch for him at the gate of the town. All that night they made no move, thinking, ‘We will wait till daybreak; then we will kill him’.

³ Samson however stayed in bed till midnight, and rising at midnight, he seized the doors of the town gate and the two posts as well; he tore them up, bar and all, hoisted them on to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill facing Hebron and there he left them.

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Vale of Sorek; she was called Delilah.

⁵ The chiefs of the Philistines visited her and said to her, ‘Cajole him and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can master him and bind him and reduce him to helplessness. In return we will each give you eleven hundred silver shekels.’

⁶ Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and what would be needed to bind you and tame you’.

⁷ Samson answered, ‘If I were bound with seven new bowstrings that had not yet been dried, I should lose my strength and become like any other man’.

⁸ The chiefs of the Philistines brought Delilah seven new bowstrings that had not yet been dried and she took them and bound him with them.

⁹ She had men concealed in her room, and she shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ Then he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps at a touch of the fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘You have been laughing at me and telling me lies. But now please tell me what would be needed to bind you.’

¹¹ He answered, ‘If I were bound tightly with new ropes that have never been used, I should lose my strength and become like any other man’.

¹² Then Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and she shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ She had men concealed in her room, but he snapped the ropes round his arms like thread.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘Up to now you have been laughing at me and telling me lies. Tell me what would be needed to bind you.’ He answered, ‘If you wove the seven locks of my hair into the warp of the web and fixed the peg firlnly, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’

¹⁴ She lulled him to sleep, then wove the seven locks of his hair into the warp, fixed the peg and shouted, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ He woke from his sleep and pulled out both stuff and peg. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁵ Delilah said to him, ‘How can you say you love me when you do not trust me? Three times now you have laughed at me and have not told me where your great strength comes from.’

¹⁶ And day after day she persisted with her questions, and allowed him no rest, till he grew tired to death of it.

¹⁷ At last he told her his whole secret; he said to her, ‘A razor has never touched my head, because I have been God’s nazirite from my mother’s womb. If my head were shorn, then my power would leave me and I should lose my strength and become like any other man.’

¹⁸ Then Delilah realised he had told his whole secret to her; she had the chiefs of the Philistines summoned and given this message, ‘Come just once more: he has told his whole secret to me’. And the chiefs of the Philistines came to her with the money in their hands.

¹⁹ She lulled Samson to sleep in her lap, and summoned a man who sheared the seven locks off his head. Then he began to lose his strength, and his power left him.

²⁰ She cried, ‘The Philistines are on you, Samson!’ He awoke from sleep, thinking, ‘I shall break free as I did before and shake myself clear’. But he did not know that Yahweh had turned away from him.

²¹ The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze, and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison.

²² But the hair that had been shorn off began to grow again.

²³ The chiefs of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. They said: ‘Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy.

²⁴ And as soon as the people saw their god, they acclaimed him, shouting his praises: ‘Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy, the man who laid our country waste and killed so many of us’.

²⁵ And as their hearts were full of joy, they shouted, ‘Send Samson out to amuse us’. So Samson was brought out of prison, and he performed feats for them; then he was put to stand between the pillars.

²⁶ But Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, ‘Lead me where I can touch the pillars supporting the building, so that I can lean against them’.

²⁷ Now the building was crowded with men and women. All the chiefs of the Philistines were there, while about three thousand men and women were watching Samson’s feats from the roof.

²⁸ Samson called on Yahweh and cried out, ‘Lord Yahweh, I beg you, remember me; give me strength again this once, and let me be revenged on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes’.

²⁹ And Samson put his arms round the two middle pillars supporting the building, and threw all his weight against them, his right arm against one and his left arm against the other;

³⁰ and he cried out, ‘May I die with the Philistines!’ He thrust now with all his might, and the building fell on the chiefs and on all the people there. Those he killed at his death outnumbered those he had killed in his life.

³¹ His brothers and his father’s whole family came down and carried him away. They took him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had been judge in Israel for twenty years.