Judges 16:16–31

¹⁶It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was ¹annoyed 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 ^aNazirite 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 ¹hair. 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 ^athe 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 ^aDagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said,

“Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

²⁴When the people saw him, ^athey 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 ¹they 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 ²entertained 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.

Samson Is Avenged

^28aThen Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord ¹God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once ^bbe 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 ¹all 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. ^aThus he had judged Israel twenty years.