2. When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded the place and waited in ambush for him all that night at the city gate. While they were waiting quietly, they said, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.”
3. But Samson stayed in bed until midnight when 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 took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.
4. Some time later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
5. The Philistine leaders went to her and said, “Persuade him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each of us will then give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”
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? ”
7. Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
8. The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.
9. While the men in ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here! ” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength remained unknown.