Judges 16:16–31

¹⁶She kept on asking him, day after day. He got so sick and tired of her nagging him about it ¹⁷that he finally told her the truth. “My hair has never been cut,” he said. “I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite^j from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else.”

¹⁸When Delilah realized that he had told her the truth, she sent a message to the Philistine kings and said, “Come back just once more. He has told me the truth.” Then they came and brought the money with them. ¹⁹Delilah lulled Samson to sleep in her lap and then called a man, who cut off^k Samson’s seven locks of hair. Then she began to torment him, for he had lost his strength. ²⁰Then she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” He woke up and thought, “I’ll get loose and go free, as always.” He did not know that the Lord had left him. ²¹The Philistines captured him and put his eyes out. They took him to Gaza, chained him with bronze chains, and put him to work grinding at the mill in the prison. ²²But his hair started growing again.

The Death of Samson

²³The Philistine kings met together to celebrate and offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They sang, “Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!” ^24–25They were enjoying themselves, so they said, “Call Samson, and let’s make him entertain us!”^l When they brought Samson out of the prison, they made him entertain them^m and made him stand between the pillars. When the people saw him, they sang praise to their god: “Our god has given us victory over our enemy, who devastated our land and killed so many of us!” ²⁶Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let me touch the pillars that hold up the building. I want to lean on them.” ²⁷The building was crowded with men and women. All five Philistine kings were there, and there were about 3,000 men and women on the roof, watching Samson entertain them.ⁿ

²⁸Then Samson prayed, “Sovereign Lord, please remember me; please, God, give me my strength just once more, so that with this one blow I can get even with the Philistines for putting out my two eyes.” ²⁹So Samson took hold of the two middle pillars holding up the building. Putting one hand on each pillar, he pushed against them ³⁰and shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his might, and the building fell down on the five kings and everyone else. Samson killed more people at his death than he had killed during his life.

³¹His brothers and the rest of his family came down to get his body. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had been Israel’s leader for twenty years.