Judges 16:15-31

15Then she said to him, “1How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” 16It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was 2annoyed to death. 17So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a 3Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

18When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his 4hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. 20She said, “The Philistines are upon you, 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 5the Lord had departed from him. 21Then 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 a grinder in the prison. 22However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

23Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to 6Dagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.” 24When the people saw him, 7they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, Even the destroyer of our country, Who has slain many of us.” 25It so happened when 8they were in high spirits, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he 9entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars. 26Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” 27Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

2810Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord 11God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once 12be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. 30And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with 13all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. 31Then his brothers and all his father’s household came down, took him, brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. 14Thus he had judged Israel twenty years.