Judges 16:16–31

¹⁶And it cometh to pass, because she distressed him with her words all the days, and doth urge him, and his soul is grieved to death, ¹⁷that he declareth to her all his heart, and saith to her, ‘A razor hath not gone up on my head, for a Nazarite to God I am from the womb of my mother; if I have been shaven, then hath my power turned aside from me, and I have been weak, and have been as any of the human race.’

¹⁸And Delilah seeth that he hath declared to her all his heart, and she sendeth and calleth for the princes of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up this time, for he hath declared to me all his heart;’ and the princes of the Philistines have come up unto her, and bring up the money in their hand. ¹⁹and she maketh him sleep on her knees, and calleth for a man, and shaveth the seven locks of his head, and beginneth to afflict him, and his power turneth aside from off him; ²⁰and she saith, ‘Philistines are upon thee, Samson;’ and he awaketh out of his sleep, and saith, ‘I go out as time by time, and shake myself;’ and he hath not known that Jehovah hath turned aside from off him. ²¹And the Philistines seize him, and pick out his eyes, and bring him down to Gaza, and bind him with two brazen fetters; and he is grinding in the prison-house.

²²And the hair of his head beginneth to shoot up, when he hath been shaven, ²³and the princes of the Philistines have been gathered together to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; and they say, ‘Our god hath given into our hand Samson our enemy.’ ²⁴And the people see him, and praise their god, for they said, ‘Our god hath given in our hand our enemy, and he who is laying waste our land, and who multiplied our wounded.’ ²⁵And it cometh to pass, when their heart is glad, that they say, ‘Call for Samson, and he doth play before us;’ and they call for Samson out of the prison-house, and he playeth before them, and they cause him to stand between the pillars. ²⁶And Samson saith unto the young man who is keeping hold on his hand, ‘Let me alone, and let me feel the pillars on which the house is established, and I lean upon them.’ ²⁷And the house hath been full of men and of women, and thither are all the princes of the Philistines, and on the roof are about three thousand men and women, who are looking on the playing of Samson. ²⁸And Samson calleth unto Jehovah, and saith, ‘Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this time, O God; and I am avenged—vengeance at once—because of my two eyes, on the Philistines.’ ²⁹And Samson turneth aside to the two middle pillars, on which the house is established, and on which it is supported, to the one with his right hand, and one with his left; ³⁰and Samson saith, ‘Let me die with the Philistines,’ and he inclineth himself powerfully, and the house falleth on the princes, and on all the people who are in it, and the dead whom he hath put to death in his death are more than those whom he put to death in his life. ³¹And his brethren come down, and all the house of his father, and lift him up, and bring him up, and bury him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying-place of Manoah his father; and he hath judged Israel twenty years.

Chapter 17