Judges 16

Samson and Delilah

1Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and 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 through the night, saying, “At dawn 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 the two posts, pulled them out, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill facing Hebron. 4After this, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek named Delilah. 5The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “Seduce him and find out what makes his strength so great, 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.” 6So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength, and how you could be tied up and subdued.” 7Samson said to her, “If they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.” 8The rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she tied him up with them. 9Men were hiding in the inner room, waiting. She called out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. 10Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me — you lied to me. Now tell me how you can really be tied up.” 11He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.” 12So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then she called out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” — the men were hiding in the inner room — but he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread. 13Delilah said to Samson, “All this time you have made a fool of me and lied to me. Tell me how you can be tied up.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair into the loom—” 14So while he slept, she wove the seven braids of his hair into the loom, fastened it with the pin, and called out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin, the loom, and the woven cloth.

Samson’s Strength Is Betrayed

15Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me, and you still haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16She pestered him with her words day after day, pressing him until he was tired to death. 17So he told her everything. “No razor has ever touched my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak, like any other man.” 18When Delilah realized he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come up once more — he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines came to her, bringing the silver with them. 19She lulled him to sleep on her lap, then called a man in to shave off the seven braids of his hair. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. 20Then she called out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as before and shake myself free.” He did not know that Yahweh had left him. 21The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. There they bound him with bronze shackles, and he was set to grinding grain in the prison. 22But his hair began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

23Now the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, the one who devastated our land and multiplied our dead.” 25And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Bring out Samson, and let him entertain us.” So they called Samson from the prison, and he performed before them. Then they stood him between the pillars, 26and Samson said to the boy who held his hand, “Let me touch the pillars that hold up the temple, so I can lean against them.” 27The temple was full of men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28Then Samson cried out to Yahweh, “Lord Yahweh, remember me. Strengthen me, I pray, just this once more, 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 the temple stood on, and braced himself against them, one hand on each. 30Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the rulers and everyone else inside. So the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life. 31His brothers and all his father’s household came down, carried him away, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.