1 Then Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute there, and he went in to her.
2 And the people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here." So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They stayed quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, at daylight, we will kill him."
3 But Samson lay there until midnight, and at midnight he arose, and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4 It came to pass after this, that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 And the lords of the Philistines came to her and said, "Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, so that we may bind him and afflict him. 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 how you can be bound to afflict you."
7 And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have never been dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."
8 So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh cords, which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he broke the cords 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, "You have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me how you can be bound."
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 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 how you can be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web."
14 So she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
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, 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 Nazarite 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."