¹⁶And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, his soul grew impatient to the point of death.^f ¹⁷So he confided everything to her,^g and he said to her, “A razor has never touched^h my head, for I am a Nazirite of Godⁱ from birth.^j If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

¹⁸Delilah realized that he had confided in her,^k so she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up one more time, for he has confided in me.”^l And the rulers of the Philistines came up, and they brought the money with them.^m ¹⁹And she put him to sleep on her lap; then she called the menⁿ and shaved off seven locks of his head. Then she began to subdue him,^o and his strength went away from him. ²⁰And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he woke up from his sleep and said, “I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free,” but he did not know that Yahweh had left him. ²¹And the Philistines seized him, gouged his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. They tied him up with bronze shackles, and he became a grinder in the prison.^p ²²But the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.

²³The rulers of the Philistines had gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” ²⁴And the people saw him, and they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has given into our hand those who hate us, devastate our land, and have killed many of us.”^q ²⁵After awhile, when their hearts^r were merry, they said, “Call Samson and let him entertain us.” And they called Samson from the prison,^s and he entertained them.^t And they made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶Then Samson said to the servant who was holding him by his hand, “Position me so that I can touch the pillars on which the house^u rests, so I can lean on them.” ²⁷And the house^v was full of men and women, and all of the rulers of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching the performance of Samson.

Samson’s Revenge

²⁸And Samson called to Yahweh and said, “My Lord Yahweh, remember me! Please give me strength this one time, O God, so that I can repay with one act of revenge to the Philistines for my eyes.” ²⁹And Samson reached out and held two of the middle pillars on which the house^w was resting, and he leaned on them, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁰And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And he pushed^x with all his strength, and the house^y fell on the rulers and all of the people who were with him. And the dead whom he killed in his death were more than those he killed in his life.

³¹His brothers and his whole family^z came down and picked him up; and they brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father; he judged Israel twenty years.

Read in Logos

Judges 16:16: And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.

Footnotes

fLiterally “his inner self grew tired/impatient to death”
gLiterally “he told her all his heart”
hLiterally “has never gone up”
iLiterally “consecrated of God” or “devoted of God”
jLiterally “from the womb of my mother”
kLiterally “he had told her all his heart”
lLiterally “he has told me all his heart”
mLiterally “in their hand”
nHebrew “man”
oOr “humiliate him”
pLiterally “in the house of the prisoners”
qLiterally “made numerous our slain”
rHebrew “heart”
sLiterally “from the house of the prisoner”
tLiterally “he made sport before them”
uOr “temple”
vOr “temple”
wOr “temple”
xOr “he caused to bend”
yOr “temple”
zLiterally “all the house of his father”