Judges 16
He Killed More in His Death Than in His Life
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The Gates of Gaza Carried Off
16:1Samson went from there to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there and went in to her.
16:2The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” They surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, “Let us wait until morning light and kill him.”
16:3Samson slept until midnight. About midnight he arose, seized the city gate’s doors and its two posts, lifted them with the bar, and put them on his shoulder. He carried them up to the top of the mountain facing Hebron and set them there.
Delilah and the Satraps’ Offer
16:4Afterward he loved a woman by the Sorek torrent whose name was Delilah.
16:5The foreigners’ satraps came up to her and said, “Deceive him and discover where his great strength lies and how we can overcome him and bind him to humble him. Each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Three Times Deceived
16:6Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me where your great strength lies and how you can be bound so as to humble you.”
16:7Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven moist sinew-strings that have not dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
16:8The foreigners’ satraps brought her seven moist sinew-strings that had not dried, and she bound him with them.
16:9The ambush against him was waiting in the inner room. She said to him, “The foreigners are upon you, Samson!” He broke the sinew-strings as a thread of flax waste breaks when it smells fire. His strength remained unknown.
16:10Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have deceived me and told me falsehoods. Now please tell me how you can be bound.”
16:11He said to her, “If they bind me tightly with seven new cords that have never been used for work, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
16:12Delilah took new cords for him and bound him with them. She said to him, “The foreigners are upon you, Samson!” The ambush was waiting in the inner room. He tore the cords from his arms like a thread.
16:13Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have deceived me and told me falsehoods. Please tell me how you can be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven strands of my head into the warp and drive it with the peg into the wall, I will be weak like any other man.”
16:14Delilah put him to sleep, wove his head’s seven curls into the stretched fabric, and drove it with pegs into the wall. She said to him, “The foreigners are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and tore the pegs with the woven fabric from the wall, and the warp; his strength remained unknown.
The Secret Told
16:15Delilah said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have deceived me and have not told me where your great strength lies.”
16:16She wore him down with her words all night and troubled him until he grew weary to the point of death.
16:17He told her everything from his heart and said to her, “No razor shall come upon my head, for I am a Nazirite of God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will depart from me; I will become weak and be like everyone else.”
16:18Delilah saw that he had told her everything from his heart. She sent and called all the foreigners’ satraps, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his heart.” All the foreigners’ satrapies came up to her, bringing the silver in their hands.
16:19She put him to sleep between her knees, called the barber, and had the seven curls of his head shaved. He began to be humbled, and his strength departed from him.
16:20Delilah said to him, “The foreigners are upon you, Samson!” He awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out and act as always, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
Samson Blinded and Bound
16:21The foreigners seized him and dug out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze fetters, and he ground grain in the prison house.
16:22The hair of his head began to grow again after he had been shaved.
The House of Dagon Falls
16:23The foreigners’ satraps gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. They said, “Our god has handed Samson our enemy into our hand.”
16:24The people saw him and praised their gods, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy into our hand, the one who devastated our land and multiplied our slain.”
16:25When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson from the prison house, so that he may perform before us.” They called Samson from the prison house, mocked him, and placed him between the two pillars.
16:26Samson said to the boy leading him by the hand, “Please let me rest and let me feel the pillars on which the house is supported, so that I may lean upon them.” The boy did so.
16:27The house was full of men and women, and all the foreigners’ satraps were there. On the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson being mocked.
16:28Samson cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord, Lord, remember me and strengthen me just this once more, so that I may take one vengeance on the foreigners for my two eyes.”
16:29Samson embraced the two middle pillars on which the house was supported and leaned against them, one with his right hand and one with his left.
16:30Samson said, “Let my soul die with the foreigners.” He bent with strength, and the house fell upon the satraps and all the people in it. Those Samson killed in his death were more than those he killed in his life.
16:31His brothers and all his father’s household came down, took him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V2 · working draft awaiting specialist review.