Shoftim - Chapter 16

1. And Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and came to her.

2. To the Gazites (it was told) saying, "Samson has come here," and they compassed and lied in wait for him all night by the gate of the city. And they were quiet the whole night, saying, "Until the morning light and we will kill him."

3. And Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and of the two posts, and he plucked them up together with the bolt and put them upon his shoulders, and he brought them up to the top of the mountain that is facing Hebron.

4. And it was afterwards, that he loved a woman by the brook of Sorek, and her name was Delilah.

5. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, "Persuade him, and see wherein his strength is so great, and with what we can prevail against him that we may tie him up to torture him: and each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

6. And Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me now, wherein is your strength so great, and with what you may be tied up to torture you."

7. And Samson said to her, "If I will be bound with seven moist bowstrings that did not dry, then I shall become weak, and be as any man."

8. And the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven moist bowstrings that did not dry, and she bound him with them.

9. Now the ambushers stayed in the room, and she said to him, "The Philistines (have come) upon you Samson!" And he tore the bowstrings as a string of tow is torn when it is smelled by fire, and his strength was not known.

10. And Delilah said to Samson, "Behold you have mocked me, and told me lies. Immediately now tell me, with what you may be tied up."

11. And he said to her, "If I will be tied up with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I shall become weak, and be as any man."

12. And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines (have come) upon you Samson!" and the ambushers were staying in the room. And he tore them from his arms like a thread.

13. And Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me, and told me lies, tell me with what you may be tied up." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head to the roller."

14. And she fastened (it) with the peg, and said to him, "The Philistines (have come) upon you Samson." And he awoke from his sleep, and plucked away the peg of the web and the roller.

15. And she said to him, "How can you say 'I love you,' while your heart is not with me? These three times you have mocked me, and you have not told me wherein is your strength so great."

16. And it was, as she nagged him with her words every day, and pressed him, that his soul was vexed to death.

17. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, "A razor has not come upon my head, for I am a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I will be shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any man."

18. And Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, and she sent and called to the lords of the Philistines saying, "Come up this time, for he has told me all his heart." And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands.

19. And she put him to sleep upon her knees, and she called to the man, and she shaved off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

20. And she said, "The Philistines (have come) upon you Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times, and I will shake myself," but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

21. And the Philistines seized him, and gouged out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with copper chains, and he did grind in the prison house.

22. And the hair of his head began to grow after he was shaven.

23. And the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, "Our god has delivered our enemy Samson into our hands."

24. And the people saw him and praised their god, because they said, "Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our land, and who has slain many of us."

25. And it was when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for Samson, and he will make sport for us." And they called for Samson out of the prison-house, and he made sport before them, and they stood him between the pillars.

26. And Samson said to the lad that held him by his hand, "Allow me, and let me feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean upon them."

27. Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And upon the roof (there were) about three thousand men and women, the spectators of Samson's sport.

28. And Samson called to the Lord and said, "O Lord God, remember me and strengthen me now, only this once O God, that I may be avenged the vengeance for one of my two eyes from the Philistines."

29. And Samson grasped the two pillars of the center, upon which the house rested, and leaned upon them, (the) one with his right hand and the other with his left.

30. And Samson said, "Let my soul die with the Philistines," and he bent with (his) might, and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. And the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his lifetime.

31. And his brothers and all his father's household came down, and carried him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.