1
Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her.
2
The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here." So they circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, "Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will kill him."
3
But Samson lay only until midnight. Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
4
After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5
The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."
6
So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you."
7
Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else."
8
Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them.
9
While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
10
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound."