Judges 16

Samson at Gaza

¹Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute, and he went in and slept with her. ²The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him at the city gate through the night. They made no move the whole night, for they said, “When morning light comes, we will kill him.”^{a 3}But Samson lay there only until midnight. At midnight he got up and seized the doors of the city gate together with its two posts, and he tore them loose, bar and all. Lifting them onto his shoulders, he carried them all the way up to the hilltop that faces Hebron.

Delilah and the secret of Samson’s strength

⁴Some time after this, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, in the Valley of Sorek. ⁵The rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great and how we can overpower him, so that we can tie him up and subdue him. Each of us will give you about 28 pounds of silver.” ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and what it would take to tie you up and subdue you.” ⁷Samson answered, “Suppose they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings that were never dried. Then I will become weak and be like any other man.” ⁸So the Philistine rulers brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, never dried, and she tied him up with them. ⁹She had men hidden in the inner room, waiting. Then she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a strand of flax fiber snaps at the touch of fire. So the secret of his strength was still not found out. ¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me and told me lies! Now please tell me what it would take to tie you up.” ¹¹He said to her, “If they tie me up tightly with new ropes that have never been used for work, I will become weak and be like any other man.” ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. Then she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Men were hidden in the inner room, waiting. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread. ¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and telling me lies. Tell me what it would take to tie you up.” He answered, “Weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom.”^{b 14}So she wove his hair in and fastened it tight with the pin, and said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He woke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom along with the web. ¹⁵Then she said to him, “How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ while you keep your heart from me? Three times now you have made a fool of me, and you still have not told me what makes your strength so great.” ¹⁶Day after day she kept pressing him with her words and pleading with him, until he was weary to death of it. ¹⁷So he told her everything that was in his heart. “No razor has ever touched my head,” he said to her, “because from my mother’s womb I have been set apart to God as a Nazirite. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like any other man.” ¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her everything in his heart, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines: “Come up just once more, for he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines came up to her, bringing the silver with them.^{c 19}She lulled him to sleep on her lap and called for a man, and she had the seven braids of his head shaved off. Then she began to subdue him, and his strength had left him. ²⁰Then she said, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He woke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as I did the other times and shake myself loose.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. ²¹The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was set to grinding grain in the prison. ²²But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Samson brings down the house of Dagon

²³Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. \q They said, “Our god has given into our hands \q Samson our enemy.” ²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god. \q They said, “Our god has given into our hands our enemy, \q the one who laid waste our land \q and killed so many of us.” ²⁵When they were in high spirits, they said, “Call for Samson, and let him entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. They had him stand between the pillars. ²⁶Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Let me rest here and feel the pillars that hold up the temple, so that I can lean against them.” ²⁷The temple was full of men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. On the roof there were about 3,000 men and women looking on as Samson performed. ²⁸Then Samson called out to the LORD: “Lord GOD, please remember me. Please give me strength just this once more, O God, so that with one blow I may pay the Philistines back for my two eyes.”^{d 29}Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the temple stood, and he braced himself against them, his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. ³⁰And Samson said, “Let me die together with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and on all the people inside. So he killed more people by his death than he had killed during his whole life. ³¹Then his brothers and all his father’s family came down. They took him and brought him back up, and they buried him in the tomb of Manoah his father, between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had judged Israel for twenty years.