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Judges 16
He went also into Gaza, and saw there a woman a harlot,
and went in unto her.
And when the Philistines had beard this, and it was
noised about among them, that Samson was come into the
city, they surrounded him, setting guards at the gate
of the city, and watching there all the night in silence,
that in the morning they might kill him as he went out.
But Samson slept till midnight, and then rising he took
both the doors of the gate, with the posts thereof,
and the bolt, and laying them on his shoulders, carried
them up to the top of the hill, which looketh towards
Hebron.
After this he loved a woman, who dwelt in the valley
of Sorec, and she was called Dalila.
And the princes of the Philistines came to her, and
said: Deceive him, and learn of him wherein his great
strength lieth, and how we may be able to overcome him,
to bind and afflict him: which if thou shalt do, we
will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces
of silver.
And Dalila said to Samson: Tell me, I beseech thee,
wherein thy greatest strength lieth, and what it is
wherewith if thou wert bound thou couldst not break
loose.
And Samson answered her: If I shall be bound with seven
cords made of sinews not yet dry, but still moist, I
shall be weak like other men.
And the princes of the Philistines brought unto her
seven cords, such is he spoke of, with which she bound
him;
Men lying privately in wait with her, and in the chamber
expecting the event of the thing, and she cried out
to him: The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he
broke the bands, as a man would break a thread of tow
twined with spittle, when it smelleth the fire: so it
was not known wherein his strength Jay.
And Dalila said to him: Behold thou hast mocked me,
and hast told me a false thing: but now at least tell
me wherewith thou mayest be bound.
And he answered her: If I shall be bound with new ropes,
that were never in work, I shall be weak and like other
men.
Dalila bound him again with these, and cried out: The
Philistines are upon thee, Samson, there being an ambush
prepared for him in the chamber. But he broke the bands
like threads of webs.
And Dalila said to him again: How long dost thou deceive
me, and tell me lies? Shew me wherewith thou mayest
be bound. And Samson answered her: If thou plattest
the seven locks of my head with a lace, and tying them
round about a nail fastenest it in the ground, I shall
be weak.
And when Dalila had done this, she said to him: The
Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And awaking out of
his sleep he drew out the nail with the hairs and the
lace.
And Dalila said to him: How dost thou say thou lovest
me, when thy mind is not with me? Thou hast told me
lies these three times, and wouldst not tell me wherein
thy great strength lieth.
And when she pressed him much, and continually hung
upon him for many days, giving him no time to rest,
his soul fainted away, and was wearied even until death.
Then opening the truth of the thing, he said to her:
The razor hath never come upon my head, for I am a Nazarite,
that is to say, consecrated to God from my mother's
womb: if my head be shaven, my strength shall depart
from me, and I shall become weak, and shall be like
other men.
Then seeing that be had discovered to her all his mind,
she sent to the princes of the Philistines, saying:
Come up this once more, for now he hath opened his heart
to me. And they went up taking with them the money which
they had promised.
But she made him sleep upon her knees, and lay his head
in her bosom. And she called a barber, and shaved his
seven locks, and began to drive him away, and thrust
him from her: for immediately his strength departed
from him.
And she said: The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.
And awaking from sleep, he said in his mind: I will
go out as I did before, and shake myself, not knowing
that the Lord was departed from him.
Then the Philistines seized upon him, and forthwith
pulled out his eyes, and led him bound in chains to
Gaza, and shutting him up in prison made him grind.
And now his hair began to grow again.
And the princes of the Philistines assembled together,
to offer great sacrifices to Dagon their god, and to
make merry, saying: Our god hath delivered our enemy
Samson into our hands.
And the people also seeing this, praised their god,
and said the same: Our god hath delivered our adversary
into our bands, him that destroyed our country and killed
very many.
And rejoicing in their feasts, when they had now taken
their good cheer, they commanded that Samson should
be called, and should play before them. And being brought
out of prison he played before them, and they made him
stand between two pillars.
And he said to the lad that guided his steps: Suffer
me to touch the pillars which support the whole house,
and let me lean upon them, and rest a little.
Now the house was full of men and women, and all the
princes of the Philistines were there. Moreover about
three thousand persons of both sexes from the roof and
the higher part of the house, were beholding Samson's
play.
But he called upon the Lord, saying: O Lord God, remember
me, and restore to me now my former strength, O my God,
that I may revenge myself on my enemies, and for the
loss of my two eyes I may take one revenge.
And laying hold on both the pillars on which the house
rested, and holding the one with his right hand, and
the other with his left,
He said: Let me die with the Philistines. And when he
had strongly shook the pillars, the house fell upon
all the princes, and the rest of the multitude that
was there: and he killed many more at his death, than
he had killed before in his life.
And his brethren and all his kindred, going down took
his body, and buried it between Saraa and Esthaol in
the buryingplace of his father Manue: and he judged
Israel twenty years.
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