Judges 16:1-31
16 And Samson went from there to Ghaza, and saw a prostitute there and went in to her;
2 * and the Ghazites were told “Samson has come here,” and they came around and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate, and kept quiet all night, saying “Till morning daylight, and we will kill him!”
3 But Samson lay abed till midnight, and got up at midnight and took hold of the city gates and the two gateposts and pulled them up bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and took them up to the top of the mountain facing Hebron on the east.
4 And after that he fell in love with a woman in Sorek Arroyo, whose name was Delilah.
5 And the Sarns of the Philistines came up to her and said to her “Inveigle him and see by what means he has the great strength, and by what means we may master him and tie him so as to tame him, and we will each give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
6 And Delilah said to Samson “Tell me by what means you have the great strength, and by what means you might be tied up so as to tame you.”
7 And Samson said to her “If they tie me up with seven fresh undried bowstrings I shall weaken and be like any man.”
8 And the Sarns of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh undried bowstrings, and she tied him with them,
9 * while she had the ambuscade waiting in the chamber; and she said to him “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” and he broke the bowstrings as a strand of tow breaks when it scents fire, and his strength was not found out.
10 And Delilah said to Samson “Here you have been trifling with me and telling me lies; now tell me by what means you might be tied up.”
11 And he said to her “If they tie me with new ropes that have never been used, I shall weaken and be like any man.”
12 And Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them, and said to him “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” while the ambuscade was waiting in the chamber; and he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13 * And Delilah said to Samson “You have kept on trifling with me and telling me lies; tell me by what means you might be tied up.” And he said to her “If you weave the seven braids of hair on my head in with your cloth and drive them down with the stick, I shall weaken and be like any man.”
14 * And she put him to sleep and wove the seven braids of hair on his head in with her cloth and drove them down with the stick, and said to him “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” and he woke from his sleep and pulled up the stick, the loom and the cloth; and his strength was not found out.
15 And she said to him “How is it you say ‘I love you’ and do not take me into your confidence? this is three times you have trifled with me and not told me by what means you have the great strength”;
16 and when she nagged him with her talk every day and kept the screws on him, he was ready to die with impatience,
17 and he made a clean breast of it and said to her “No razor has gone over my head, because I have been God’s devotee from my birth; if I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I shall weaken and become like everybody.”
18 And Delilah saw that he had made a clean breast of it, and she sent for the Sarns of the Philistines, saying “This time come up; he has made a clean breast of it”; and the Sarns of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money up with them.
19 ** And she put him to sleep in her embrace, and called the man, and shaved off the seven braids of hair on his head, and he began to grow tame, and his strength left him.
20 And she said “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” and he woke up from his sleep and thought “I shall come off as I did the other times, I shall shake myself loose,” not knowing that his strength had left him.
21 * And the Philistines took hold of him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Ghaza and put him in irons, and he became a grinder in the prison.
22 But the hair on his head began to grow as soon as it had been shaved.
23 And the Sarns of the Philistines came together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to hold festival, and thought “Our god has given our enemy Samson into our hands”;
24 * and the people saw him and praised their god, because, they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, him who made many our dead and laid waste our lands.”
25 And when they were jolly they said “Call Samson to give us an exhibition.” And they summoned Samson out of the prison, and he gave an entertainment before them; and they had him stand between the pillars.
26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand “Put me so that I can feel for the pillars the house is supported on and find them, to lean on them,”
27 the house being full of the men and women (and all the Sarns of the Philistine being there, and on the roof about three thousand men and women) who were looking on while Samson gave his exhibition.
28 And Samson called to Jehovah “Lord Jehovah, remember me and strengthen me just this once, God, so that I may take my revenge on the Philistines for one of my two eyes”;
29 and Samson twisted the two middle pillars that the house was supported on, and braced himself against them one with his right hand and one with his left.
30 And Samson said “Die myself with the Philistines!” and gave a hard lunge, and down fell the house on the Sarns and on all the people in it. And there were more dead that he had killed at his death than that he had killed in his life.
31 And his brothers and all his family went down and brought him away, and buried him up between Soreah and Eshtaol in the grave of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
Footnotes
^ 16:2 Conj. all day at the city gate
^ 16:9 (last seven words) Or without showing any exertion
^ 16:13-14 Var. on my head in with your cloth.” And she drove them down
^ 16:14 (last seven words) Or without showing any exertion Var. omits these words
^ 16:19 Var. in her lap
^ 16:19 Conj. and he shaved off
^ 16:21 Lit. fettered him with bronzes
^ 16:24 Conj. that this verse belongs after verse 25
