Samson 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.
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1 Samson’s Downfall Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and slept with her.
2 The Gazites were told,“Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. They relaxed all night, thinking,“He will not leave until morning comes; then we will kill him!”
25 When they really started celebrating, they said,“Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. They made him stand between two pillars.
26 Samson said to the young man who held his hand,“Position me so I can touch the pillars that support the temple. Then I can lean on them.”
27 Now 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.
28 Samson 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!”
29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other.
30 Samson 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.
31 His brothers and all his family went down and brought him back. They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel for twenty years.
18 When 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.
19 She 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.
20 She 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.
21 The 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.
22 His hair began to grow back after it had been shaved off.
23 Samson’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.”
12 So 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.
13 Delilah 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.”
14 So 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.
8 So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and she tied him up with them.
9 They 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.
4 After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
5 The 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.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson,“Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.”
1 Samson 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.
7 Samson said to them,“Because you did this, I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.”
8 He struck them down and defeated them. Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.
9 The Philistines went up and invaded Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle in Lehi.
10 The men of Judah said,“Why are you attacking us?” The Philistines said,“We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.”
11 Three 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.”
12 They 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.”
13 They said to him,“We promise! We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff.
14 When 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.
15 He happened to see a solid jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Samson then said,“With the jawbone of a donkey I have left them in heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men!”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down and named that place Ramath Lehi.
5 Samson went down to Timnah. When he approached the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a roaring young lion attacking him.
6 The 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.
7 Samson continued on down to Timnah and spoke to the girl. In his opinion, she was just the right one.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to see the lion’s remains. He saw a swarm of bees in the lion’s carcass, as well as some honey.
9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass.
19 The 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.
3 Samson said to them,“This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!”
4 Samson went and captured three hundred jackals and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair.
5 He lit the torches and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
1 Samson’s Unconsummated Marriage Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye.
2 When he got home, he told his father and mother,“A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. Now get her for my wife.”
3 But 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.”
15 On 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?”
16 So 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?”
24 Manoah’s wife gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the LORD empowered him.