1
Shimshon went to `Aza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.
2
[It was told] the `Azati, saying, Shimshon is come here. They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until morning light, then we will kill him.
3
Shimshon lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hevron.
4
It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5
The lords of the Pelishtim came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.
6
Delilah said to Shimshon, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
7
Shimshon said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.
8
Then the lords of the Pelishtim brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9
Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. She said to him, The Pelishtim are on you, Shimshon. He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
10
Delilah said to Shimshon, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound.
11
He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.