¹Then Samson went to Gaza, and he saw a harlot there, and he went in to her. ²It was reported to the Gazans as follows: “Samson has come here.” Then they surrounded and ambushed him all night at the city gate, and they kept quiet all night and said, “At morning light we will kill him.” ³And Samson lay down until midnight, then he arose at midnight, and he seized the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, and he wrenched them out with the bolt, and he put them on his shoulders, and he brought them up to the top of the mountain which is adjacent to Hebron. ⁴And it came to pass after that, that he fell in love with a woman at the Brook of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. ⁵Then the barons of the Philistines went up and said to her, “Entice him and see what his great strength is due to, and by what means we can prevail over him, so that we can bind him to subdue him, and we will each give you one thousand one hundred pieces of silver.” ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Do tell me what your great strength is due to, and by what means you can be bound to subdue you.” ⁷And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords which have not dried up, then I will become weak, and I will become like any other man.” ⁸Then the barons of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords which had not dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹And an ambush was present in collusion with her in the room, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the cords as one breaks a thread of hemp when one makes it touch fire, and the cause of his strength was not known. ¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me, and you have told me lies. Now do tell me how you can be bound.” ¹¹Then he said to her, “If indeed they bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I will become weak and become like any other man.” ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the ambush was present in the room, but he broke them from around his arms like a thread. ¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head with a web.” ¹⁴She did so, and she fastened it with a peg. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Then he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the peg for the woven work and the web. ¹⁵Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you’, when your heart is not with me? That is three times you have mocked me and not told me what your great strength is due to.” ¹⁶And it came to pass that she distressed him with her words every day, and she urged him, so that he was inwardly grieved to death. ¹⁷And he told her all his heart, and he said to her, “No razor has gone over my head, for I have been 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 I will become like any other man.” ¹⁸And Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, and she sent word and called for the barons of the Philistines, and she said, “Come up this time.” For he had told her all his heart. And the barons of the Philistines came up to her, and they brought up the silver in their hands. ¹⁹And she made him sleep on her knees, and she called for the man, and she had him shave the seven braids of his head, then she began to oppress him, and his strength departed from him. ²⁰And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep, and he said, “I will go out as at other times and rouse myself.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. ²¹Then the Philistines seized him, and they gouged out his eyes, and they brought him down to Gaza, and they bound him in fetters, and he became a millstone worker in the prison. ²²And the hair of his head began to grow after he had been shaven. ²³Then the barons of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and for rejoicing, and they said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.” ²⁴And the people saw him, and they praised their god, for they said,

“Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands

– The one who made our land desolate

And who increased the number of our casualties.”

²⁵And it came to pass, because their heart was cheerful, that they said, “Call for Samson, and he will be sport for us.” So they called for Samson from prison, and he was sport before them, and they placed him between the columns. ²⁶And Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the columns by which the building is held up, so that I can lean on them.” ²⁷And the building was full of men and women, and all the barons of the Philistines were there, and there were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching the sport with Samson. ²⁸And Samson called out to the Lord, and he said, “My Lord the Lord, do remember me and strengthen me just this once, O God, so that I will be avenged with one act of vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹And Samson took hold round the two central columns to which the building fixed, and he exerted force against them, one by his right hand, and one by his left hand. ³⁰And Samson said, “I myself will die with the Philistines.” And he stretched out in strength, and the building fell on the barons and on all the people in it, and those who died – whom he killed in his death – were more than those whom he killed in his life. ³¹Then his brothers and the whole household of his father went down and took him and brought him up, and they buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the grave of Manoah his father. And he had judged Israel for twenty years.