6So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you can be bound to afflict you."
7And 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."
8So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh cords, which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9Now 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.
10Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me how you can be bound."
11So 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."
12Therefore 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.
13Delilah 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."
14So 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.
15Then 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."
16And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, that his soul was vexed to death,
17that 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."
18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart." So the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.
19Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.
20She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
21Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison.
22However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.
23Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand."
24When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, and the one who multiplied our dead."
25So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may perform for us." So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them, and they stationed him between the pillars.