Judges 16:1-21

¹One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.

²When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.”

³But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

⁴Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

⁵The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

⁷Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.”

⁸So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.

⁹While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

¹¹He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹²So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.

¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁴So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.

¹⁵“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”

¹⁶Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,

¹⁷Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.

¹⁹And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.

²⁰Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

²¹Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

Related Resources from Heartlight

Cross References for Judges 16:1-21

The Berean Standard Bible