Judges 16

Judges 16:1 Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went to have sex with her.

Judges 16:2 When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded the place and waited to ambush him all that night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let’s wait until dawn; then we will murder him.”

Judges 16:3 But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then 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 carried them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

Judges 16:4 Sometime later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.

Judges 16:5 The Philistine princes went to her and said, “Convince him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

Judges 16:6 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?”

Judges 16:7 Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh tent ropes that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:8 The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh, undried tent ropes, and she tied him up with them.

Judges 16:9 While the men in the ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the tent ropes like a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength stayed unknown.

Judges 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Notice, you have mocked me and told me lies! Won’t you please tell me how you can be tied up?”

Judges 16:11 He told her, “If they tie me up with new cords that have never been used, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:12 Delilah took new cords, tied him up with them, and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men in the ambush were waiting in her room, he snapped the cords off his arms like a thread.

Judges 16:13 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 into the fabric on a loom– “

Judges 16:14 She fastened the braids with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” He woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.

Judges 16:15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,'” 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!”

Judges 16:16 Because she nagged him daily and pleaded with him until his throat was impatient enough to die,

Judges 16:17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, because he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the silver with them.

Judges 16:19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. This is how she made him helpless, and his strength left him.

Judges 16:20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he woke up from his sleep, he said, “I will escape like I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Yahveh had left him.

Judges 16:21 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.

Judges 16:22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.

Judges 16:23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us.

Judges 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead.

Judges 16:25 When they were in a happy mood, 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.

Judges 16:26 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.”

Judges 16:27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.

Judges 16:28 He called out to Yahveh: “Lord Yahveh, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Judges 16:29 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.

Judges 16:30 Samson said, “Let my throat die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.

Judges 16:31 Then his brothers and all 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 had judged Israel for twenty years.

Judges 16 quotes:

“The Gazites, like vultures, are pictured circling around in preparation for an ambush at dawn. Samson, however, surprises them, escaping in the night. His violent seizure of the city gates and the way in which he carries them off evoke comparisons with Paul Bunyan and other folk heroes who perform acts requiring prodigious and superhuman strength (cf. Thompson Motif F614.2). Samson moves the gates from a Philistine to an Israelite locus (see 1:10 on Hebron), connoting a removal of power and status.”

Niditch Susan. Judges : A Commentary. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 168.