Judges
Chapter Sixteen
1 ¶ Now Samson went
to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.
2 When the Gazites were told, "Samson has come here!" they surrounded
the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were
quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, when it is daylight, we will
kill him."
3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of
the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar
and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill
that faces Hebron.
4 ¶ Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek,
whose name was Delilah.
5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, "Entice
him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower
him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you
eleven hundred pieces of silver."
6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength
lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you."
7 And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings,
not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings,
not yet dried, and she bound him with them.
9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to
him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he broke the bowstrings
as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength
was not known.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies.
Now, please tell me what you may be bound with."
11 So he said to her, "If they bind me securely with new ropes that have
never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him,
"The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And men were lying in wait,
staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies.
Tell me what you may be bound with." And he said to her, "If you weave
the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom" -
14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, "The
Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled
out the batten and the web from the loom.
15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart
is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where
your great strength lies."
16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed
him, so that his soul was vexed to death,
17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever
come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb.
If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and
be like any other man."
18 ¶ When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and
called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for
he has told me all his heart." So the lords of the Philistines came up
to her and brought the money in their hand.
19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him
shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his
strength left him.
20 And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" So he awoke
from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and
shake myself free!" But he did not know that the LORD had departed from
him.
21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down
to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the
prison.
22 ¶ However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been
shaven.
23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice
to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: "Our god has delivered
into our hands Samson our enemy!"
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: "Our
god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the
one who multiplied our dead."
25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call
for Samson, that he may perform for us." So they called for Samson from
the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.
26 Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the
pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them."
27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines
were there-about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson
performed.
28 Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I
pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow
take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!"
29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple,
and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
30 Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed
with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who
were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed
in his life.
31 And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him, and
brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father
Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
Go to Chapter Seventeen
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