Shophetim (Judges) 16
16
1And Shimshon went to Azzah and saw a woman there, a whore, and went in to her –
2the Azzathites saying, “Shimshon has come here!” So they went round and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and kept silent all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, then we shall kill him.”
3Now Shimshon lay until midnight, and rose at midnight, and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, and pulled them up with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and took them to the top of the hill that faces Ḥeḇron.
4And it came to be afterward that he loved a woman in the wadi Sorĕq, whose name was Delilah.
5And the princes of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and see by what we might overpower him, then we shall bind him to humble him. And let us give you, each one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Please reveal to me where your great strength lies, and by what you might be bound, to humble you.”
7And Shimshon said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords, not yet dried, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”
8The princes of the Philistines then brought her seven fresh cords, not yet dried, and she bound him with them,
9while those lying in wait stayed with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he broke the cords as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
10And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Look, you have mocked me and spoken lies to me. Now, please reveal to me by what you might be bound.”
11And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”
12And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” And those lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13So Delilah said to Shimshon, “Until now you have mocked me and spoken lies to me, reveal to me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.”
14Then she fastened it with a pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
15Then she said to him, “How do you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not made known to me where your great strength lies.”
16And it came to be, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his being was wearied to death,
17that he made known to her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to Elohim from my mother’s womb. If I were shaven, then my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
18And Delilah saw that he had made known to her all his heart, and she sent and called for the princes of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has made known to me all his heart.” So the princes of the Philistines came up to her and brought the silver in their hand.
19And she made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head. Thus she began to humble him, and his strength left him.
20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” And he awoke from his sleep, and said, “Let me go out as before, at other times, and shake myself loose!” But he did not know that יהוה had turned aside from him.
21So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Azzah, and bound him with bronze shackles. And he became a grinder in the prison.
22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.
23And the princes of the Philistines gathered to slaughter a great slaughtering to Daḡon their mighty one, and to rejoice. And they said, “Our mighty one has given Shimshon our enemy into our hands!”
24And the people saw him, and praised their mighty one, for they said, “Our mighty one has given into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, who slew many of us.”
25And it came to be, when their hearts were glad, that they said, “Call for Shimshon, and let him entertain us.” So they called for Shimshon from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the columns.
26And Shimshon said to the young man who who was holding his hand, “Let me alone and let me feel the columns which support the house, so that I lean on them.”
27And the house was filled with men and women. And all the princes of the Philistines were there. And about three thousand men and women were on the roof who watched Shimshon entertaining.
28And Shimshon called to יהוה, saying, “O Master יהוה, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, only this time, O Elohim, and let me avenge myself on the Philistines with vengeance for my two eyes!”
29And Shimshon took hold of the two middle columns which supported the house, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
30And Shimshon said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bowed himself mightily, and the house fell on the princes and all the people in it. And the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
31And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Tsor‛ah and Eshta’ol in the burial-site of his father Manowaḥ. And he had ruled Yisra’ĕl twenty years.
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Shophetim (Judges) 16: TS2009
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