16. She pressed him continually and pestered him till he was deathly weary of it.
17. So he told her all that was in his heart and said, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a nazirite for God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.”
18. When Delilah realized that he had told her all that was in his heart, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came to her and brought the money with them.
19. She put him to sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair. He immediately became helpless, for his strength had left him.
20. When she said “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as I have done time and again and shake myself free.” He did not realize that the Lord had left him.
21. But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding grain in the prison.
22. But the hair of his head began to grow as soon as it was shaved.
23. The lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our power.”
24. When the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said,“Our god has delivered into our powerour enemy, the ravager of our land,the one who has multiplied our slain.”
25. When their spirits were high, they said, “Call Samson that he may amuse us.” So they called Samson from the prison, and he provided amusement for them. They made him stand between the columns,
26. and Samson said to the attendant who was holding his hand, “Put me where I may touch the columns that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.”
27. The temple was full of men and women: all the lords of the Philistines were there, and from the roof about three thousand men and women looked on as Samson provided amusement.
28. Samson cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord God, remember me! Strengthen me only this once that I may avenge myself on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.”
29. Samson grasped the two middle columns on which the temple rested and braced himself against them, one at his right, the other at his left.