Judges

When Samson went to Gaza, he saw a prostitute and entered where she lived.

When the men of Gaza were notified that Samson had come, they made the rounds and waited for him at the city gates. They kept quiet all night, thinking:

“We will wait for him until dawn, and then we will kill him.”

But Samson slept until midnight. At midnight, he arose, took hold of the door panels of the city gates together with the door case, and pulled them up with the bar. He put them upon his shoulders and carried them to the hilltop opposite Hebron.

After this, Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek; she was called Delilah.

The Philistine chiefs said to this woman:

“Charm him and find out where he gets such strength and how we can defeat and tie him up. Each of us shall give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

So Delilah asked Samson:

“Tell me, please, where do you get such strength, and how can others tie you up to subdue you?”

Samson answered her:

“If they bind me with seven new and moist bowstrings, then I shall lose my strength and be as any other man.”

The Philistine chiefs sent Delilah seven new bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied Samson with them.

With men hidden in her dwelling, she shouted:

“Samson, here come the Philistines!”

Samson broke the bowstrings as if they were burned flax. So, they did not discover the source of his great strength.

Then Delilah told Samson:

“You made a fool of me and lied to me. Tell me, how can they subdue you?”

Samson answered her:

“If they bind me this time with seven newly-braided ropes which have never been used, then I shall lose my strength and be like any other man.”

So Delilah bound him with seven new braided ropes. But when she shouted:

“Here come the Philistines!”

He again snapped the ropes around his arms like a thread.

So Delilah said to him:

“How long will you deceive me and lie to me? Tell me how they can subdue you.”

He answered her:

“If you braid the seven locks of my hair in the warp of the loom and tighten it with a pin, then I shall lose my strength.”

She lulled him to sleep, then braided the seven locks of his hair in the loom’s warp and tightened it with a pin. Then she cried:

“Here come the Philistines!”

Samson woke up and pulled the warp with the locks of his hair. And so, Delilah did not discover the source of his great strength.

Then Delilah said to him:

“You say that you love me, but your heart is not with me. Three times, you have deceived me and have not told me from whence your great strength comes.”

And as Delilah insisted and bothered him daily with her questions, the time came when Samson felt he would die in disgust.

So he told her the truth:

“Never has my hair been cut, for I am a Nazirite, consecrated to God from the womb of my mother. If my hair is cut, I shall lose my strength and be like any other man.”

Delilah understood that he had told her the truth this time, so she called the Philistine chiefs and said:

“Come, because Samson has revealed his secret to me.”

They took the money and came to her.

Delilah lulled Samson to sleep upon her knees and called a man to cut the seven locks of his hair. She could immediately subdue him, for his strength had left him.

When Delilah shouted:

“Samson, the Philistines!”

He awoke and thought that he could still save himself, as he had on other occasions. However, he did not know that the Lord was no longer with him.

So the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. There, they bound him with two bronze chains and made him turn the mill in the prison.

The hair on Samson’s head grew as soon as it was cut.

The Philistine leaders gathered to make an enormous sacrifice to their god Dagon and held a grand feast, saying: “Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hands!”

On seeing him, the people praised their god, saying:

“Our god has put our enemy into our hands, Samson, who has destroyed our country and killed our men.”

When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!”

As they were thrilled, they said:

“Bring out Samson that he may amuse us.”

They brought him out of prison, and he amused them. Then, they had him placed between the columns.

Samson then said to the boy who held him by the hand:

“Lead me where I can touch the pillars on which this house rests so that I may lean on them.”

The house was full of men and women; all the Philistine chiefs were also there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson for amusement.

Samson called on the Lord and exclaimed:

“Lord God, please remember me and restore my strength only this once, so that I may avenge myself against the Philistines for my eyes.”

Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, leaned on them with his right arm on one pillar and his left on the other,

and cried out, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the chiefs and the people gathered there. Those who joined him in his death were more than those he had killed during his lifetime.

His brothers and his father’s entire family went down to get him. They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in his father’s tomb, Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.