19. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.
20. Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!”When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the lord had left him.
21. So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison.
22. But before long, his hair began to grow back.
23. The Philistine rulers held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising their god, Dagon. They said, “Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!”