Judges 16:17-31

¹⁷Therefore he tolde her all his heart, and said vnto her, There neuer came rasor vpon mine head: for I am a Nazarite vnto God from my mothers wombe: therefore if I bee shauen, my strength will goe from me, and I shalbe weake, and be like all other men.

¹⁸And when Delilah sawe that he had tolde her all his heart, she sent, and called for the Princes of ye Philistims, saying, Come vp once againe: for he hath shewed mee all his heart. Then the Princes of the Philistims came vp vnto her, and brought the money in their handes.

¹⁹And she made him sleepe vpon her knees, and she called a man, and made him to shaue off the seuen lockes of his head, and shee began to vexe him, and his strength was gone from him.

²⁰Then she said, The Philistims be vpon thee, Samson. And hee awoke out of his sleepe, and thought, I will go out now as at other times, and shake my selfe, but he knewe not that the Lord was departed from him.

²¹Therefore the Philistims tooke him, and put out his eyes, and brought him downe to Azzah, and bounde him with fetters: and hee did grinde in the prison house.

²²And the heare of his head began to growe againe after that it was shauen.

²³Then the Princes of the Philistims gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice vnto Dagon their god, and to reioyce: for they said, Our god hath deliuered Samson our enemie into our handes.

²⁴Also when the people saw him, they praysed their god: for they sayde, Our god hath deliuered into our hands our enemie and destroyer of our countrey, which hath slayne many of vs.

²⁵And when their heartes were merie, they said, Call Samson, that he may make vs pastime. So they called Samson out of the prison house, and he was a laughing stocke vnto them, and they set him betweene the pillars.

²⁶Then Samson saide vnto the seruant that led him by the hande, Lead me, that I may touch the pillars that the house standeth vpon, and that I may leane to them.

²⁷(Nowe the house was full of men and women, and there were all the princes of the Philistims: also vpon the roofe were about three thousande men and women that behelde while Samson played)

²⁸Then Samson called vnto the Lord, and sayde, O Lord God, I pray thee, thinke vpon me: O God, I beseech thee, strengthen me at this time onely, that I may be at once auenged of the Philistims for my two eyes.

²⁹And Samson layd hold on the two middle pillars whereupon the house stood, and on which it was borne vp: on the one with his right hand, and on the other with his left.

³⁰Then Samson saide, Let me lose my life with the Philistims: and he bowed him with all his might, and the house fell vpon the princes, and vpon all the people that were therein. so the dead which he slewe at his death were more then they which he had slaine in his life.

³¹Then his brethren, and all the house of his father came downe and tooke him, and brought him vp and buryed him betweene Zorah and Eshtaol, in the sepulchre of Manoah his father: nowe he had iudged Israel twenty yeeres.