Judges 16 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to sleep with her.

The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him at the city gate all night long, saying, "At first light, we'll kill him."

But Samson only stayed until midnight. Then he got up, grabbed the doors of the city gate along with the two posts, and ripped them out — bar and all. He hoisted them onto his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

After this, he fell in love with a woman in the Sorek Valley named Delilah.

The Philistine rulers came to her and said, "Seduce him and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can overpower him so we can tie him up and make him helpless. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

So Delilah said to Samson, "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 haven't been dried out, I'll become as weak as any other man."

So the Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings that hadn't been dried, and she tied him up with them.

She had men hiding in the inner room waiting. Then she called out, "Samson! The Philistines are coming for you!" But he snapped the bowstrings like a thread of fiber touches flame — and the secret of his strength remained unknown.

Delilah said to Samson, "You've been making fun of me and lying to me! Come on — tell me how someone could actually tie you up."

He told her, "If they tie me tightly with brand-new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man."

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, with men hiding in the inner room. She called out, "Samson! The Philistines are coming for you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.

Delilah said to Samson, "You keep making fun of me and lying to me! Tell me how you could really be tied up." He told her, "If you weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with a pin, I'll become as weak as any other man."

So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric and tightened it with a pin. Then she called out, "Samson! The Philistines are coming for you!" He woke up and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the fabric — all of it.

She said to him, "How can you say 'I love you' when your heart isn't really with me? Three times now you've made fun of me and won't tell me where your great strength comes from."

Day after day she pressured him with her words and nagged him until he was sick to death of it.

So he told her everything. He said, "No razor has ever touched my head, because I've been set apart for God as a Nazirite since before I was born. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me. I'd become weak and be like any other man."

When Delilah realized he had told her everything, she sent word to the Philistine rulers: "Come back one more time — he's told me everything." So the Philistine rulers came to her, bringing the silver with them.

She lulled him to sleep on her lap, then called for a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair. She began to overpower him, and his strength left him.

She called out, "Samson! The Philistines are coming for you!" He woke up thinking, "I'll get free just like before and shake myself loose." But he didn't know that Yahweh had left him.

The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and forced him to grind grain in the prison.

But the hair on his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.

Now the Philistine rulers gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, "Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us!"

When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has handed our enemy over to us — the one who devastated our land and killed so many of us!"

When they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring Samson out so he can entertain us!" So they brought Samson out of the prison and made him perform for them. They stood him between the pillars.

Samson said to the boy leading him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars that hold up the building so I can lean against them."

The building was packed with men and women. All the Philistine rulers were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson perform.

Then Samson called out to Yahweh: "Lord Yahweh, remember me. Please, God, give me strength just one more time. Let me with one act get payback on the Philistines for my two eyes."

Samson reached out and grabbed the two central pillars that supported the building — one with his right hand, one with his left — and braced himself against them.

Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he pushed with all his strength, and the building collapsed on the rulers and everyone inside. He killed more people in his death than he had in his entire life.

His brothers and his father's entire family came down and carried him back. They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel for twenty years.