Judges 16:20-28

²⁰Then after she tied him up, she called out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” He woke up and thought, “I will do as I did before. I will shake these ropes off myself and be free!” But he did not realize that Yahweh had left him.

²¹So the Philistine men seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they took him to Gaza. There they put him in prison and bound him with bronze chains. They made him turn a millstone to grind grain every day.

²²But his hair started to grow again.

²³Several months later the Philistine leaders celebrated a big festival. During the festival they offered sacrifices to their god Dagon. They praised him, saying, “Our god has enabled us to defeat our great enemy Samson!”

²⁴And when the other people saw Samson, they also praised their god Dagon, saying, “Samson ruined our crops and killed many of our people, but our god has put our enemy into our hands. Our god helped us to capture the one who has killed so many of us!”

²⁵By that time the people were half-drunk. They shouted, “Bring Samson out of the prison! Bring him here so that he can entertain us!” So they brought Samson from the prison and made fun of him. Then they made him stand in the center of the temple. They made him stand between the two pillars that held up the roof.

²⁶Samson said to the servant who was leading him by his hand, “Place my hands against the two pillars. I want to rest against them.”

²⁷At that time the temple was full of men and women. All the Philistine leaders were also there. And there were about 3,000 people on the roof, watching Samson and making fun of him.

²⁸Then Samson prayed, saying, “Yahweh, my Lord, think about me again! Please give me strength one more time, so that I may get revenge on the Philistines for gouging out my eyes!”