CHAPTER 16
When the Gazites
heard that Samson
was there,
they surrounded that place
and lay in wait
for him
all
night
at the city
gate.
They were quiet
throughout
the night,
saying,
“Let us wait until
dawn;
then we will kill him.”
But Samson
lay there
only until
midnight.
Then he got up
and took hold
of the doors
of the city
gate,
along with the two
gateposts,
and pulled them out,
bar
and all.
Then he put them
on
his shoulders
and took
them to
the top
of the mountain
overlooking
Hebron.
The lords
of the Philistines
went
to her
and said,
“Entice
him
and find out
the source of
his great
strength
and how
we can overpower
him
to tie him up
and subdue him.
Then each one
of us
will give
you
eleven hundred shekels
of silver."
So Delilah
said
to
Samson,
“Please
tell me
the source
of your great
strength
and how
you could be tied up
and subdued.”
Samson
told her,
“If
they tie me up
with seven
fresh
bowstrings
that
have not
been dried,
I will become as weak
as any
other man.”
So the lords
of the Philistines
brought
her
seven
fresh
bowstrings
that
had not
been dried,
and she bound him
with them.
While the men
were hidden
in her
room,
she called out,
“Samson,
the Philistines are
here!”
But he snapped
the bowstrings
like
a strand
of yarn
breaks
when it touches
the flame.
So the source of his strength
remained unknown.
Then Delilah
said
to
Samson,
“You have mocked
me
and lied to me!
Will you now
please
tell
me how
you can be bound?”
He replied,
“If
they tie me up
with new
ropes
that
have never
been used,
I will become as weak
as any
other man.”
So Delilah
took
new
ropes,
tied him up,
and called out,
“Samson,
the Philistines are
here!”
But while the men
were hidden
in her room,
he snapped
the ropes off
his arms
like a thread.
Then Delilah
said
to
Samson,
“You have mocked
me
and lied to me
all along!
Tell
me how
you can be tied up.”
He told her,
“If
you weave
the seven
braids
of my head
into
the web of a loom [and fasten it with a
[So while he slept, Delilah took the sev
the braids with a pin
and called
to him,
“Samson,
the Philistines are
here!”
But he awoke
from his sleep
and pulled out
the pin
with the loom
and the web.
“How
can you say,
‘I love you,’”
she told him,
“when your heart
is not
with me?
This
is the third
time
you have mocked
me and failed
to reveal
to me
the source
of your great strength!”
he told
her
all that was
in his heart:
“My hair
has never
been cut,
because
I have been
a Nazirite
to God
from
my mother's
womb.
If
I am shaved,
my strength
will leave me,
and I will become as weak
as
any
other man."
When Delilah
realized
that
he had revealed
to her
his whole
heart,
she sent
this message
to the lords
of the Philistines:
“Come up
once more,
for
he has revealed
to me
his whole
heart.”
Then the lords
of the Philistines
came
to her,
bringing
the money
in their hands.
And having lulled him to sleep
on
her lap,
she called
a man
to shave off
the seven
braids
of his head.
In this way
she began to subdue him,
and his strength
left him.
Then she called out,
“Samson,
the Philistines are
here!”
When Samson awoke
from his sleep,
he thought,
“I will escape
as I did before
and shake myself free.”
But he
did not
know
that
the LORD
had departed
from him.
Then the Philistines
seized him,
gouged out
his eyes,
and brought him down
to Gaza,
where he was bound
with bronze shackles
and forced
to grind
grain in the prison.
Now the lords
of the Philistines
gathered together
to offer
a great
sacrifice
to their god
Dagon.
They rejoiced
and said,
“Our god
has delivered
Samson
our enemy
into our hands.”
And when the people
saw him,
they praised
their god,
saying:
“Our god
has delivered
into our hands
our enemy
who destroyed
our land
and
multiplied
our dead.”
And
while their hearts
were merry,
they said,
“Call
for Samson
to entertain us.”
So they called
Samson
out of the prison
to entertain them.
And they stationed
him
between
the pillars.
Samson
said
to
the servant
who held
his hand,
“Lead
me
where I can feel
the pillars
supporting
the temple,
so I can lean
against them.”
Now the temple
was full of
men
and women;
all
the lords
of the Philistines
were there,
and about three
thousand men
and women
were on
the roof
watching
Samson
entertain them.
Then Samson
called out
to
the LORD:
“O Lord
GOD,
please
remember me.
Strengthen me,
O God,
just
once more,
so that with one
vengeful blow
I may pay back
the Philistines
for my two
eyes.”
And Samson
reached out
for the two
central
pillars
supporting
the temple.
Bracing himself
against them
with his right hand
on one
and his left hand
on the other,
Samson
said,
“Let me
die
with
the Philistines.”
Then he pushed
with all his might,
and the temple
fell
on
the lords
and
all
the people in it.
So in his death
he killed
more
than
he had killed
in his life.
Then Samson's brothers
and his father’s
family
came down,
carried him back,
and buried
him between
Zorah
and Eshtaol
in the tomb
of his father
Manoah.
And he
had judged
Israel
twenty
years.