The Judges · c. 1060 BC
Chapter 8
Samson and Delilah
Samson called to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”
For parents
Samson sleeps with a prostitute in Gaza (it is told in one sentence, without detail), and the men of the city wait all night to kill him (Judges 16:1–3). After Delilah gives away his secret for silver, the Philistines put out his eyes and keep him in shackles in prison (16:18–21). At the end, Samson asks to die with the Philistines and brings their building down. He dies with the rulers and all the people in it. It is told plainly, as the Bible tells it (16:28–30).
went to . There he saw a , and he slept with her.
The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him and waited for him at the city gate all night without a sound. “Wait until it gets light,” they told each other. “Then we’ll kill him.”
Samson lay there until midnight, then got up. He gripped the doors of the city gate and both its posts and pulled them up, along with the bar that locked them. Then he lifted them onto his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain that faces .
Later on, Samson fell in love with a woman from the . Her name was .
The rulers of the came up to her. “Win him over,” they said. “Find out where his great strength comes from and how we can get the better of him. Then we can tie him up and torment him. We’ll each pay you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength comes from. What could someone use to tie you up and torment you?”
Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh cords that have never been dried, I’ll become weak. I’ll be like any other man.”
The rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh cords that had never been dried, and she tied Samson up with them.
She had men hidden in the inner room, lying in wait. She said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He broke the cords the way a thread of breaks when it touches fire. So no one found out where his strength came from.
Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you’ve made a fool of me and told me lies. Now please tell me what you could be tied up with.”
He said to her, “If they just tie me up with new ropes, ones that have never been used for work, I’ll become weak. I’ll be like any other man.”
Delilah got new ropes and tied him up with them. Men were lying in wait in the inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He broke the ropes off his arms like thread.
Delilah said to Samson, “So far you’ve made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me what you could be tied up with.”
He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the cloth on the .”
She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He woke up and pulled the loom’s pin out, and the cloth with it.
She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart isn’t with me? Three times now you’ve made a fool of me, and you haven’t told me where your great strength comes from.”
Day after day she kept at him, pushing and pleading, until he was so troubled he felt he could die. Then he opened his whole heart to her. “No razor has ever touched my head,” he told her, “because I’ve been a to God since before I was born. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me. I’ll become weak and be like any other man.”
Delilah saw that he had opened his heart and told her everything. She sent for the rulers of the Philistines. “Come up just this once,” she said, “because he’s told me everything.” Then the rulers of the Philistines came up to her, and they brought the money with them.
She got him to fall asleep on her lap, then called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of hair on his head. Then she started to torment him, and his strength was gone.
She said, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!”
He woke up and said, “I’ll go out the way I did the other times, and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the had left him.
The Philistines seized him and put out his eyes, blinding him. They took him down to Gaza and put bronze shackles on him. In the prison, he ground grain at the mill.
But after his head was shaved, the hair on it began to grow back.
The rulers of the Philistines came together to celebrate and to offer a great sacrifice to , their god. “Our god has handed our enemy Samson over to us!” they said.
When the people saw him, they praised their god. “Our god has handed our enemy over to us!” they said. “He’s the one who ruined our country and killed many of us!”
When they were all merry, they said, “Call for Samson, so he can entertain us.” They sent to the prison for Samson, and he performed in front of them. They placed him between the pillars.
Samson said to the boy who was holding him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars that hold up the building, so that I can lean on them.”
The building was full of men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. About three thousand men and women were up on the roof, and they watched while Samson performed.
Samson called to the Lord. “Lord God, remember me, please,” he said. “Please make me strong just this once, God, so that I can take revenge on the Philistines all at once for my two eyes.”
Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that held up the building, one with his right hand and the other with his left, and leaned on them.
“Let me die with the Philistines!” Samson said. He bent forward with all his might, and the building fell on the rulers and on all the people in it. So Samson killed more people as he died than he had killed in his life.
Then his brothers and all his father’s family came down and took his body. They carried him up and buried him between and , in the burial place of his father . He had for twenty years.