Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Help, and Joy in Its Answer

A psalm of David.^[a]

Samson and Delilah

16 Samson went down to Gaza; there he saw a prostitute and had sex with her.^{[a] 2} The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here,” so they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, “We will wait until the morning light, and then we will kill him.” ³ But Samson lay until the middle of the night; he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two door posts, tore them loose with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill that is in front of^[b] Hebron.

⁴ After this he fell in love with a woman in the wadi^[c] of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. ⁵ And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. ⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?” ⁷ Samson said to her, “If you tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried up, I will become weak like everyone else.” ⁸ So the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them. ⁹ The ambush was sitting in wait for her in an inner room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you Samson!” And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And the secret of his strength remained unknown. ¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you can be bound.” ¹¹ He said to her, “If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, I will become weak and be like everyone else.” ¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The ambush was sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

¹³ And Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told lies to me. Tell me how you can be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my head with warp-threads.”^{[d] 14} She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads.^[e]

¹⁵ And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me how your strength is so great.” ¹⁶ And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, his soul grew impatient to the point of death.^{[f] 17} So he confided everything to her,^[g] and he said to her, “A razor has never touched^[h] my head, for I am a Nazirite of God^[i] from birth.^[j] If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

¹⁸ Delilah realized that he had confided in her,^[k] so she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, “Come up one more time, for he has confided in me.”^[l] And the rulers of the Philistines came up, and they brought the money with them.^{[m] 19} And she put him to sleep on her lap; then she called the men^[n] and shaved off seven locks of his head. Then she began to subdue him,^[o] and his strength went away from him. ²⁰ And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he woke up from his sleep and said, “I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free,” but he did not know that Yahweh had left him. ²¹ And the Philistines seized him, gouged his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. They tied him up with bronze shackles, and he became a grinder in the prison.^{[p] 22} But the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.

¹⁵ Some even because of envy and strife preach Christ, but some also because of good will. ¹⁶ The latter do so from love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking to raise up affliction in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What is the result?^[a] Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. But also I will rejoice, ¹⁹ for I know that this will turn out to me for deliverance through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ²⁰ according to my eager expectation and hope, that I will be put to shame in nothing, but with all boldness, even now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether through life or through death. ²¹ For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.