Birth of Samson, the Last Judge

13 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,(A) so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines 40 years. There was a certain man from Zorah,(B) from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children. The Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are unable to conceive and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now please be careful not to drink wine or beer,(C) or to eat anything unclean;(D) for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair,[a] because the boy will be a Nazirite(E) to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”

Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring Angel of God. I didn’t ask Him where He came from, and He didn’t tell me His name. He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.’”

Manoah prayed(F) to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”

God listened(G) to[b] Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me today has just come back!”

11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are You the man who spoke to my wife?”

“I am,” He said.

12 Then Manoah asked, “When Your words come true, what will the boy’s responsibilities and mission[c] be?”

13 The Angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”

15 “Please stay here,” Manoah told Him, “and we will prepare a young goat(H) for You.”

16 The Angel of the Lord said to him, “If I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.

17 Then Manoah said to Him, “What is Your name, so that we may honor You when Your words come true?”

18 “Why do you ask My name,” the Angel of the Lord asked him, “since it is wonderful.”(I)

19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, and He did a wonderful thing[d] while Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the Angel of the Lord went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground. 21 The Angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the Angel of the Lord.

22 “We’re going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”(J)

23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had intended to kill us, He wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and He would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us now like this.”

24 So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson.(K) The boy grew,(L) and the Lord blessed him. 25 Then the Spirit of the Lord began to direct him in the Camp of Dan,[e] between Zorah and Eshtaol.(M)

Samson’s Riddle

14 Samson went down to Timnah(N) and saw a young Philistine woman there. He went back and told his father and his mother: “I have seen a young Philistine woman in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”

But his father and mother said to him, “Can’t you find[f] a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines for a wife?”

But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, because I want her.”[g] Now his father and mother did not know this was from the Lord,(O) who was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him, the Spirit of the Lord took control of[h](P) him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. Then he went and spoke to the woman, because Samson wanted her.[i]

After some time, when he returned to get her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and there was a swarm of bees with honey in the carcass. He scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. When he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s carcass.(Q)

10 His father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as young men were accustomed to do. 11 When the Philistines saw him, they brought 30 men to accompany him.

12 “Let me tell you a riddle,”(R) Samson said to them. “If you can explain it to me during the seven days of the feast and figure it out, I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. 13 But if you can’t explain it to me, you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they replied.[j] “Let’s hear it.”

14 So he said to them:

Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet.

After three days, they were unable to explain the riddle. 15 On the fourth[k] day they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”

16 So Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me and don’t love me!(S) You told my people the riddle, but haven’t explained it to me.”

“Look,” he said,[l] “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”

17 She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and at last, on the seventh day, he explained it to her, because she had nagged him so much. Then she explained it to her people. 18 On the seventh day, before sunset, the men of the city said to him:

What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?

So he said to them:

If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow,
you wouldn’t know my riddle now!

19 The Spirit of the Lord took control of him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 of their men. He stripped them and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. In a rage, Samson returned to his father’s house, 20 and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.

Samson’s Revenge

15 Later on, during the wheat harvest,(T) Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

Samson said to them, “This time I won’t be responsible(U) when I harm the Philistines.” So he went out and caught 300 foxes.(V) He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.(W)

Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”

They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.

Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.” He tore them limb from limb[m] with a great slaughter, and he went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. 10 So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?”

They replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he did to us.”

11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines rule over us?(X) What have you done to us?”

“I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.[n]

12 They said to him, “We’ve come to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”

13 “No,” they said,[o] “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes(Y) and led him away from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord took control of[p] him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like burnt flax and his bonds fell off his wrists. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed 1,000 men with it. 16 Then Samson said:

With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them in a heap.
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have killed 1,000 men.

17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi.[q] 18 He became very thirsty and called out to the Lord: “You have accomplished this great victory through[r] Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived.(Z) That is why he named it En-hakkore,[s] which is in Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

16 Samson went to Gaza,(AA) where he saw a prostitute and went to bed with her. When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded the place and waited in ambush for him all that night at the city gate. While they were waiting quietly,[t] they said, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.” But Samson stayed in bed until midnight when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate along with the two gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley. The Philistine leaders(AB) went to her and said, “Persuade him to tell you[u] where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each of us will then give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me, where does your great strength come from? How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?”

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

The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. While the men in ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”[v] But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength remained unknown.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies! Won’t you please tell me how you can be tied up?”

11 He told her, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used,(AC) I will become weak and be like any other man.”

12 Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”[w] But while the men in ambush were waiting in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me all along and told me lies! Tell me how you can be tied up.”

He told her, “If you weave the seven braids on my head with the web of a loom—”[x]

14 She fastened the braids with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”[y] He awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin, with the loom and the web.

15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,’”(AD) she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!”

16 Because she nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she wore him out,[z] 17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut,[aa] because I am a Nazirite(AE) to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the money with them.

19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she made him helpless,[ab] and his strength left him. 20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”[ac] When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.(AF)

Samson’s Defeat and Death

21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison. 22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.

23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon.(AG) They rejoiced and said:

Our god has handed over
our enemy Samson to us.

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god(AH) and said:

Our god has handed over to us
our enemy who destroyed our land
and who multiplied our dead.

25 When they were drunk,[ad] they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.

26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.” 27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about 3,000 men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them. 28 He called out to the Lord: “Lord God, please remember me.(AI) Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.

31 Then his brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he judged Israel 20 years.

Footnotes

  1. Judges 13:5 Lit And a razor is not to go up on his head
  2. Judges 13:9 Lit to the voice of
  3. Judges 13:12 Lit work
  4. Judges 13:19 LXX reads to the Lord, to the One who works wonders
  5. Judges 13:25 Or in Mahaneh-dan
  6. Judges 14:3 Lit Is there not
  7. Judges 14:3 Lit because she is right in my eyes
  8. Judges 14:6 Lit Lord rushed on
  9. Judges 14:7 Lit because she was right in the eyes of Samson
  10. Judges 14:13 Lit replied to him
  11. Judges 14:15 LXX, Syr; MT reads seventh
  12. Judges 14:16 Lit said to her
  13. Judges 15:8 Lit He struck them hip on thigh
  14. Judges 15:11 Lit answered them
  15. Judges 15:13 Lit said to him
  16. Judges 15:14 Lit Lord rushed on
  17. Judges 15:17 = High Place of the Jawbone
  18. Judges 15:18 Lit through the hand of
  19. Judges 15:19 = Spring of the One Who Cried Out
  20. Judges 16:2 Lit quietly all night
  21. Judges 16:5 Lit him and see
  22. Judges 16:9 Lit are on you
  23. Judges 16:12 Lit are on you
  24. Judges 16:13 LXX reads loom and fasten [them] with a pin into the wall and I will become weak and be like any other man.” 14 And while he was sleeping, Delilah wove the seven braids on his head into the loom.
  25. Judges 16:14 Lit are on you
  26. Judges 16:16 Lit him and he became short to death
  27. Judges 16:17 Lit A razor has not gone up on my head
  28. Judges 16:19 LXX reads way he began to weaken
  29. Judges 16:20 Lit are on you
  30. Judges 16:25 Or When they were feeling good

The Birth of Samson

13 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines(A) for forty years.(B)

A certain man of Zorah,(C) named Manoah,(D) from the clan of the Danites,(E) had a wife who was childless,(F) unable to give birth. The angel of the Lord(G) appeared to her(H) and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.(I) Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink(J) and that you do not eat anything unclean.(K) You will become pregnant and have a son(L) whose head is never to be touched by a razor(M) because the boy is to be a Nazirite,(N) dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead(O) in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God(P) came to me. He looked like an angel of God,(Q) very awesome.(R) I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine(S) or other fermented drink(T) and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.(U)’”

Then Manoah(V) prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God(W) you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me(X) the other day!”

11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”

“I am,” he said.

12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

13 The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink(Y) nor eat anything unclean.(Z) She must do everything I have commanded her.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat(AA) for you.”

16 The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering,(AB) offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize(AC) that it was the angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name,(AD) so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name?(AE) It is beyond understanding.[a] 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock(AF) to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame(AG) blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.(AH) 21 When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized(AI) that it was the angel of the Lord.

22 “We are doomed(AJ) to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen(AK) God!”

23 But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”(AL)

24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson.(AM) He grew(AN) and the Lord blessed him,(AO) 25 and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir(AP) him while he was in Mahaneh Dan,(AQ) between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Marriage

14 Samson(AR) went down to Timnah(AS) and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”(AT)

His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?(AU) Must you go to the uncircumcised(AV) Philistines to get a wife?(AW)

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord,(AX) who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines;(AY) for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)(AZ)

Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him(BA) so that he tore the lion apart(BB) with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast,(BC) as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.

12 “Let me tell you a riddle,(BD)” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast,(BE) I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.(BF) 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”

“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”

14 He replied,

“Out of the eater, something to eat;
    out of the strong, something sweet.”(BG)

For three days they could not give the answer.

15 On the fourth[b] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax(BH) your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.(BI) Did you invite us here to steal our property?”

16 Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me.(BJ) You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”

“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” 17 She cried the whole seven days(BK) of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,

“What is sweeter than honey?
    What is stronger than a lion?”(BL)

Samson said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
    you would not have solved my riddle.”

19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.(BM) He went down to Ashkelon,(BN) struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger,(BO) he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions(BP) who had attended him at the feast.

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

15 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest,(BQ) Samson(BR) took a young goat(BS) and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.”(BT) But her father would not let him go in.

“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion.(BU) Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”

Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes(BV) and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch(BW) to every pair of tails, lit the torches(BX) and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks(BY) and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.(BZ)

So the Philistines went up and burned her(CA) and her father to death.(CB) Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock(CC) of Etam.(CD)

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi.(CE) 10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?(CF) What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me(CG) that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes(CH) and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi,(CI) the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.(CJ) The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,(CK) and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.(CL)

16 Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have made donkeys of them.[c](CM)
With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have killed a thousand men.”

17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.[d](CN)

18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord,(CO) “You have given your servant this great victory.(CP) Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.(CQ) So the spring(CR) was called En Hakkore,[e] and it is still there in Lehi.

20 Samson led[f] Israel for twenty years(CS) in the days of the Philistines.

Samson and Delilah

16 One day Samson(CT) went to Gaza,(CU) where he saw a prostitute.(CV) He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.(CW) They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn(CX) we’ll kill him.”

But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.(CY)

Some time later, he fell in love(CZ) with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.(DA) The rulers of the Philistines(DB) went to her and said, “See if you can lure(DC) him into showing you the secret of his great strength(DD) and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels[g] of silver.”(DE)

So Delilah(DF) said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. With men hidden in the room,(DG) she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”(DH) But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me;(DI) you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

11 He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes(DJ) that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”(DK) But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and[h] tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”(DL) He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’(DM) when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time(DN) you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.(DO) 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

17 So he told her everything.(DP) “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite(DQ) dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines(DR), “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.(DS) 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[i] And his strength left him.(DT)

20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”(DU)

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.(DV)

21 Then the Philistines(DW) seized him, gouged out his eyes(DX) and took him down to Gaza.(DY) Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain(DZ) in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Death of Samson

23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon(EA) their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god,(EB) saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy
    into our hands,(EC)
the one who laid waste our land
    and multiplied our slain.”

25 While they were in high spirits,(ED) they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof(EE) were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord,(EF) “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge(EG) on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah(EH) his father. He had led[j](EI) Israel twenty years.(EJ)

Footnotes

  1. Judges 13:18 Or is wonderful
  2. Judges 14:15 Some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac; Hebrew seventh
  3. Judges 15:16 Or made a heap or two; the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heap.
  4. Judges 15:17 Ramath Lehi means jawbone hill.
  5. Judges 15:19 En Hakkore means caller’s spring.
  6. Judges 15:20 Traditionally judged
  7. Judges 16:5 That is, about 28 pounds or about 13 kilograms
  8. Judges 16:14 Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew replied, “I can if you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom.” 14 So she
  9. Judges 16:19 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts and he began to weaken
  10. Judges 16:31 Traditionally judged