1 Samson went to Gaza, saw a prostitute there, and slept with her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” They surrounded him and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Wait until the light of morning, and we will kill him.” 3 Samson lay until midnight. At midnight he arose, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and pulled them up, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill facing Hebron.

4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went up to her and said, “Entice him and find out where his great strength lies and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him and afflict him. Each of us will give you about twenty-eight pounds of silver.” 6 Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies and how you could be bound and afflicted.” 7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.” 8 The rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh cords that had not dried, and she bound him with them. 9 She had men lying in ambush in the room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the cords as a strand of flax snaps when it touches fire. So his strength was not discovered. 10 Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you could be bound.” 11 He said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used for work, I will become weak and be like any other man.” 12 Delilah took new ropes, bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Men were lying in ambush in the room, but he snapped the ropes from his arms like a thread. 13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the fabric on the loom…” 14 She fastened it with the peg and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled away the loom peg and the fabric. 15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? These three times you have mocked me and have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 She pressed him with her words day after day and urged him until his soul was distressed to the point of death. 17 So he told her all his heart. He said to her, “No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.” 18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent for the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his heart.” The rulers of the Philistines came up to her with the silver in their hands. 19 She made him sleep on her knees, called for a man, and had the seven locks of his head shaved off. She began to afflict him, and his strength left him. 20 She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground grain in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

23 The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. They said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the one who devastated our land and multiplied our slain.” 25 When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, so that he may entertain us.” They called Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars that support the building, so that I may lean on them.” 27 The building was full of men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. On the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson entertain them. 28 Samson called to the LORD and said, “Lord GOD, please remember me. Please strengthen me just this once, O God, so that I may take vengeance on the Philistines for one of my two eyes.” 29 Samson grasped the two middle pillars that supported the building and leaned against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He bent with all his strength, and the building fell on the rulers and all the people in it. Those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life. 31 His brothers and all his father’s household went down, took him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.