Judges / Samson and Delilah: Betrayal and Capture

Samson and Delilah: Betrayal and Capture

Judges 16:1-22

Chapter 16

¹ Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there and went to her. ² The Gazites said, "Samson has come here." So they surrounded the city and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They stayed quiet all night, saying, "In the morning light we will kill him." ³ Samson lay down until midnight. Then he got up at midnight, grasped the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, uprooted them bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill facing Hebron. ⁴ And it was after this that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. ⁵ The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "Seduce him and see where his great strength lies and how we may prevail against him, so we can bind him and afflict him. Each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver." ⁶ And Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me, what is the source of your great strength, and how can you be bound to humble you." ⁷ And he said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been cut off, then I will become weak and be like any other man." ⁸ And the lords of the Philistines went up to her with seven fresh bowstrings which had not been cut off, and she bound him with them. ⁹ The ambush was waiting for him in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He snapped the bowstrings, just as one snaps a twist of thread when it smells fire. And the secret of his strength was not known. ¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have deceived me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you can be bound." ¹¹ He said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other human." ¹² Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" The ambush was lying in wait in the chamber, and he tore them off his arms like a thread from his outstretched arm. ¹³ And Delilah said to Samson, "Up to now you have mocked me and spoken lies to me. Tell me how you will be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the warp." ¹⁴ And she drove in the pin and said to him, "Philistines upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web. ¹⁵ Then she said to him, "How can you say 'I love you' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me the source of your great strength." ¹⁶ When she tormented him with her words every day and pressed him, his soul grew short to die. ¹⁷ He told her everything. He said to her, "No razor has ever been used on my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man." ¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything in his heart, she sent word and called the Philistine rulers, saying, "Come up this time, for he has told me everything in his heart." So the Philistine rulers came up to her, and they brought the silver with them. ¹⁹ And she made him sleep upon her knees. And she called to the man, and he shaved off the seven braids of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength departed from him. ²⁰ And she 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." And he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. ²¹ The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters. He became a grinder in the prison house. ²² And the hair of his head began to grow after it had been shaved.