20. Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here! ” When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
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.
22. But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.
23. Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said:Our god has handed overour enemy Samson to us.
24. When the people saw him, they praised their god and said:Our god has handed over to usour enemy who destroyed our landand who multiplied our dead.
25. When they were drunk, 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.
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.”
27. The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about 3,000 men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
28. He called out to the Lord: “Lord God, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”
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.
30. Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
31. Then his brothers and 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 judged Israel 20 years.