Finally he told her his secret. He said to her,“My hair has never been cut, for I have been dedicated to God from the time I was conceived. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”
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18When Delilah saw that he had told her his secret, she sent for the rulers of the Philistines, saying,“Come up here again, for he has told me his secret.” So the rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her, bringing the silver in their hands.
19She made him go to sleep on her lap and then called a man in to shave off the seven braids of his hair. She made him vulnerable and his strength left him.
20She said,“The Philistines are here, Samson!” He woke up and thought,“I will do as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the LORD had left him.
21The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison.
22His hair began to grow back after it had been shaved off.
23Samson’s Death and Burial The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said,“Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”
3Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron.
4After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
5The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her,“Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”
6So Delilah said to Samson,“Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.”
7Samson said to her,“If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become weak and be just like any other man.”
8So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and she tied him up with them.
9They hid in the bedroom and then she said to him,“The Philistines are here, Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. The secret of his strength was not discovered.
10Delilah said to Samson,“Look, you deceived me and told me lies! Now tell me how you can be subdued.”
11He said to her,“If they tie me tightly with brand new ropes that have never been used, I will become weak and be just like any other man.”
12So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him,“The Philistines are here, Samson!”(The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) But he tore the ropes from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.
13Delilah said to Samson,“Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her,“If you weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on the loom and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
14So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him,“The Philistines are here, Samson!” He woke up and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.
15She said to him,“How can you say,‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”
16She nagged him every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it.
5Look, you will conceive and have a son. You must never cut his hair, for the child will be dedicated to God from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power of the Philistines.”
6The woman went and said to her husband,“A man sent from God came to me! He looked like God’s angel– he was very awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
15On the fourth day they said to Samson’s bride,“Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. If you refuse, we will burn up you and your father’s family. Did you invite us here to make us poor?”
16So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder and said,“You must hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her,“Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?”
17She cried on his shoulder until the party was almost over. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle.
5“‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor may be used on his head until the time is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD. He will be holy, and he must let the locks of hair on his head grow long.
11She made a vow saying,“O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, if you would truly look on the suffering of your servant, and would keep me in mind and not neglect your servant, and give your servant a male child, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.”
1Samson’s Unconsummated Marriage Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye.
2When he got home, he told his father and mother,“A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. Now get her for my wife.”
3But his father and mother said to him,“Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” But Samson said to his father,“Get her for me, because she is the right one for me.”
11Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson,“Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them,“I have only done to them what they have done to me.”
12They said to him,“We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them,“Promise me you will not kill me.”
6The LORD’s Spirit empowered him and he tore the lion in two with his bare hands as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
7Samson continued on down to Timnah and spoke to the girl. In his opinion, she was just the right one.
1Samson Versus the Philistines Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. He said to her father,“I want to sleep with my bride in her bedroom!” But her father would not let him enter.
3Samson said to them,“This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!”
14When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the LORD’s Spirit empowered him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in fire, and they melted away from his hands.
23But his wife said to him,“If the LORD wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”
24Manoah’s wife gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the LORD empowered him.
27Now the temple was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain.
28Samson called to the LORD,“O Sovereign LORD, remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge against the Philistines for my two eyes!”
5The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning. The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb. How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, you who remain of Philistia’s power?
7Samson said to them,“Because you did this, I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.”
19The LORD’s Spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men. He took their clothes and gave them to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home.
30Samson said,“Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life.
36She said to him,“My father, since you made an oath to the LORD, do to me as you promised. After all, the LORD vindicated you before your enemies, the Ammonites.”
12Samson said to them,“I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.
1Samson’s Downfall Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and slept with her.
17When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi.