2The people of Gaza were told, "Samson has come here." So they surrounded the place and waited for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, when it is light, we will kill him."
3But Samson lay there only till midnight. At midnight he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts. He pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of a hill that faces Hebron.
4After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek. Her name was Delilah.
5The rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, "Coax him, and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can overpower him. Then we can tie him up and hurt him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."
6So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and how you could be tied up and made helpless."
7Samson said to her, "If they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, then I will become weak, and be like any other man."
8So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them.
9Now there were men hiding and waiting with her in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not found out.
10Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you could be tied up."
11He said to her, "If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, then I will become weak, and be like any other man."
12So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And men were hiding and waiting in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.
13Delilah said to Samson, "Up till now you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me how you could be tied up." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web on the loom."
14So she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He woke up from his sleep and pulled away the pin of the loom, and the web with it.
15Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? Three times now you have made a fool of me, and you have not told me where your great strength comes from."
16She pressed him with her words day after day and kept urging him, until he was sick to death of it.
17So he told her all his heart. He said to her, "No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man."
18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart." So the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.
19She made him sleep on her knees. Then she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of Samson's hair. She began to torment him, and his strength left him.
20She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He woke up from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
21The Philistines seized him and put out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was set to grinding grain in the prison.
22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved.
23Then the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to celebrate. They said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand."
24When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has given into our hands our enemy, the one who ruined our land and killed many of us."
25When their hearts were merry, they said, "Call for Samson, so that he can entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They set him between the pillars.
26Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars that hold up the house, so that I may lean on them."
27Now the house was full of men and women. All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching while Samson entertained them.
28Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray. Please give me strength just this once, O God, so that I may take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."
29Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that held up the house and supported it, one with his right hand and the other with his left.
30Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." He pushed with all his might, and the house fell on the rulers and on all the people in it. So the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.