Samson and Delilah
Judges 16, verse 1. Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. Judges 16, verse 2. When someone told the Gazites, saying, “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, “Let us wait until dawn, and we will kill him.” Judges 16, verse 3. Samson slept till midnight and rose up, and at midnight he took hold of the doors of the gate of the city with the two gateposts, and lifted them up with the bar, and placed them on his shoulders. He then carried them to the top of the mountain facing Hebron, and he set them there. Judges 16, verse 4. Sometime thereafter, he came to love a woman in Alsorech whose name was Delilah. Judges 16, verse 5. And the leaders of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Trick him and find out where his great strength lies. Learn by what means we may overpower him, so that we may bind him and humble him. If you do, every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” Judges 16, verse 6. So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you can be bound that you may be subdued and controlled.” Judges 16, verse 7. And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven damp cords, not yet spoiled, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” Judges 16, verse 8. So the leaders of the Philistines brought her seven damp cords, not yet spoiled, and she bound him with them. Judges 16, verse 9. And with her in the private chamber, an ambush was set. And she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he broke the cords as if someone should break a thread of flax when it touches the fire. Thus the secret of his strength remained unknown. Judges 16, verse 10. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Indeed! You deceived me and told me lies. Now therefore, tell me what you may be bound with.” Judges 16, verse 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.” Judges 16, verse 12. Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and those in ambush came out of the private chamber, and she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he broke them off his arms like thread. Judges 16, verse 13. And Delilah said to Samson, “Indeed! You have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me, I entreat you, with what can you be tightly bound?” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into a braid, and secure them together with a wall peg, I will be weak like any other man.” Judges 16, verse 14. And so it happened when he was asleep, Delilah braided the seven locks of his head and secured them with a wall peg, and said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” And he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the peg. Judges 16, verse 15. Then Delilah said to Samson, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You deceived me a third time; and you have not yet told me where your great strength lies.” Judges 16, verse 16. And it came to pass, after she pestered him continually with her words and pressured him sorely, that his spirit failed him almost to death. Judges 16, verse 17. Then he told her everything in his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a holy one of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like all other men.” Judges 16, verse 18. And Delilah discerned he told her all his heart, and she sent and called for the leaders of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he told me all his heart.” So the leaders of the foreigners went to her and brought the money in their hands. Judges 16, verse 19. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep on her knees, and called for a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Thus she could finally subdue and control him, for his strength departed from him. Judges 16, verse 20. And Delilah said, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” So he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as before, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Judges 16, verse 21. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with fetters of bronze; and he was grinding grain in the prison house.
Death of Samson
Judges 16, verse 22. Soon the hair of his head began to grow as before it was shaven. Judges 16, verse 23. And the leaders of the Philistines met to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to make merry. And they said, “Our god delivered our enemy, Samson, into our hands.” Judges 16, verse 24. When the people saw Samson, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land; the one who multiplied our dead.” Judges 16, verse 25. And when their heart was merry, they said, “Call Samson out of the guard house, and let him play before us.” So they called Samson from the prison house, and he played before them. And they slapped him and stationed him between the pillars. Judges 16, verse 26. Then Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars that support the house, so that I can lean on them.” Judges 16, verse 27. Now the house was full of men and women, including all the leaders of the Philistines, with about seven hundred men and women on the roof watching while Samson played. Judges 16, verse 28. Then Samson wept before the Lord, saying, “Lord, my Lord, remember me now. O God, strengthen me just this once so I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Judges 16, verse 29. And Samson took hold of the two pillars of the house, the very two which held up the house, and he leaned himself against them. He grasped one with his right hand and the other with his left, Judges 16, verse 30. and then Samson said, “Let my life end with the Philistines.” And with all his strength, he pushed on the pillars, and the house came crashing down on the leaders and all the people in it. In his dying, Samson caused more people to die than were brought to death in his life. Judges 16, verse 31. And his brothers and all his father's household came there and took him. They brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He judged Israel for twenty years.