Judges 16:17-28

¹⁷Then he told her all his heart, and said to her, A razor has not come upon my head, because I have been a holy one of God from my mother's womb; if then I should be shaven, my strength will depart from me, and I shall be weak, and I shall be as all other men.

¹⁸And Dalida saw that he told her all his heart, and she sent and called the princes of the Philistines, saying, Come up yet this once; for he has told me all his heart. And the chiefs of the Philistines went up to her, and brought the money in their hands.

¹⁹And Dalida made Sampson sleep upon her knees; and she called a man, and he shaved the seven locks of his head, and she began to humble him, and his strength departed from him.

²⁰And Dalida said, The Philistines are upon thee, Sampson: and he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at former times, and shake myself; and he knew not that the Lord was departed from him.

²¹And the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground in the prison-house.

²²And the hair of his head began to grow as before it was shaven.

²³And the chiefs of the Philistines met to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to make merry; and they said, God has given into our hand our enemy Sampson.

²⁴And the people saw him, and sang praises to their god; for our god, said they, has delivered into our hand our enemy, who wasted our land, and who multiplied our slain.

²⁵And when their heart was merry, then they said, Call Sampson out of the prison-house, and let him play before us: and they called Sampson out of the prison-house, and he played before them; and they smote him with the palms of their hands, and set him between the pillars.

²⁶And Sampson said to the young man that held his hand, Suffer me to feel the pillars on which the house rests, and I will stay myself upon them.

²⁷And the house was full of men and women, and there were all the chiefs of the Philistines, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women looking at the sports of Sampson.

²⁸And Sampson wept before the Lord, and said, O Lord, my Lord, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, O God, yet this once, and I will requite one recompense to the Philistines for my two eyes.