King James Version

1 And Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a harlot and came to her. 2 And it was told to the people of Israel, saying, "Samson has come here," and they surrounded and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate, and they kept silent all night, saying, "Until the morning light, then we will kill him." 3 And Samson lay until midnight, and he arose at midnight and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and he pulled them up with the bar and put them on his shoulders, and he carried them to the top of the hill that is opposite Hebron. 4 And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. 5 And they went up to the lords of the Philistines and said to her, “Open for him and see in what great power he is and how we can overpower him; then we will bind him to afflict him, and we will give you a man a thousand and a hundred pieces of silver.” 6 And Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, I pray, what is the source of your great strength, and how could you be bound to be subdued?" 7 And he said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man." 8 And the leaders of the Philistines went up to her, seven men alive who had not been killed, and she bound them. 9 And the ambush was sitting in the room, and she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," and he broke the cords as a thread of tow is broken when it touches fire, and his strength was not known. 10 And Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have deceived me and spoken to me lies; now tell me, please, how you can be bound." 11 And he said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have never been worked, then I will become weak and be like any other man." 12 And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," and the ambush was sitting in the inner room, and he broke them from his arms like a thread. 13 And Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have deceived me and spoken to me with lies. Tell me, how can you be bound?" And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web..." 14 And he struck with the peg and said to me, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the peg of the loom and the weaver's beam. 15 And she said to me, "How can you say, 'I have loved you,' when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have deceived me, and you have not told me in what great strength your power is." 16 And it was when she troubled him with her words all the days, that he became weary to death. 17 And he told her all his heart and said to her, "No razor has gone upon my head, for I am a Nazarite of God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will depart from me, and I will become weak and be like any other man." 18 And Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, and she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this time, for he has told me all his heart." And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. 19 And she removed him from her knees, and she called to the man, and she shaved off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. 20 And the Philistines said against him, "Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was grinding in the prison house of the prisoners. 22 And the hair of his head began to grow as soon as he was shaven. 23 And 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 into our hand Samson our enemy." 24 And the people saw him and praised their God, for they said, "Our God has given our enemies into our hands and has caused the destroyer of our land to fall, and he has multiplied our slain." 25 And when it was good to the hearts, they said, "Call for Samson and let him amuse us." So they called for Samson from the prison house, and he amused them. And they set him between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who was holding his hand, "Let me go, and I will lean against the pillars that the house is supported by, and I will rest upon them." 27 And the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and on the roof were about three thousand men and women who were looking at the sport of Samson. 28 And Samson called to the Lord and said, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray, and strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 And Samson grasped the two pillars that supported the house, and he leaned against them, one on his right and one on his left. 30 And Samson said, "Let my soul die with the Philistines." And he leaned with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. 31 And his brothers and all the house of his father went down, and they took him, and they buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father, and he judged Israel twenty years.