1Samson walked to Gaza and saw there a woman who fornicates, and he came in to her.2The Gazites were told, Samson has come here. So they went around and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate; they kept quiet all night, saying, Until the light of morning we will kill him.3Samson lay down until half the night; at half the night he rose, grasped the doors of the city gate together with the two doorposts, pulled them loose with the bar, placed them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the head of the mountain that is upon the face of Hebron.4Afterward he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah.5The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, "Entice him and see wherein his great strength lies and wherein we may be able to overpower him, bind him, and afflict him; then each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."6Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, please, wherein your great strength lies and wherein you may be bound so that one may afflict you.7Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, I shall become weak and be like any other man."8So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.9The ambusher was sitting for her in the chamber. She said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he tore the cords as a strand of tow snaps when it smells fire, and his strength was not known.10Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have deceived me and spoken lies to me; now tell me, please, wherein you may be bound."11He said to her, "If they bind me with new cords with which no work has been done, I shall become weak and be like any other man."12So Delilah took new cords and bound him with them; then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he tore them from his arms like a thread.13Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have deceived me and spoken lies to me; tell me wherein you may be bound." He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web."14She drove the peg and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the peg of the shuttle and the web.15She said to him, "How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have deceived me and have not told me wherein your great strength lies."16When she pressed him with her words all the days and urged him, his soul was short to the point of death.17He told her all his heart and said to her, "A razor has not come upon my head, for I am a Nazirite of God from the belly of my mother; if I am shaved, my strength will turn aside from me, I shall become weak, and I shall be like any other man."18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called to the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart." So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hand.19She made him sleep upon her knees, called for the man, and shaved the seven locks of his head; then she began to afflict him, and his strength turned away from him.20She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself"; but he did not know that the LORD had turned away from him.21The Philistines grasped him and dug out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza; they bound him with bronze and he became a grinder in the house of the prisoners who are bound.22The hair of his head began to spring after it had been shaved.