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          DASV: Judges 16    

1 Samson went to Gaza, there he saw a prostitute and visited her.
2 The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here." So they
surrounded him laying in wait for him all night at the city gate.
They stayed quiet all the night, thinking, "At dawn we will kill him."
3 Samson laid there until midnight. Then he got up in the middle of
the night, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts,
pulled them up, bar and all, putting them on his shoulders,
and carried them up to the top of the hill across from Hebron.

4 After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek,
whose name was Delilah.
5 The rulers of the Philistines came to her and said, "Seduce him
and find out what makes him so strong and how we can overpower
him so that we may tie him up and subdue him. Each of us will
give you 1,100 pieces of silver."
6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes you
so strong and how you might be tied up and subdued."
7 Then Samson answered her, "If they tie me up with seven fresh
bowstrings that have never been dried, then I will become weak
as any other man."
8 So the rulers of the Philistines brought to her seven fresh
bowstrings that had never been dried, and she tied him up
with them.
9 Now she had hidden some men in the inner room. Then she cried
out to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you." He snapped
the bowstrings, as easily as if it were threads when it touches
a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah complained to Samson, "You have mocked and
lied to me. Now tell me, how you can be tied up?"
11 He said to her, "If they tie me up with new ropes that have
never been used, then I will become weak as any other man."
12 So Delilah took new ropes, and tied him up with them, then
cried out, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you." The men were
hidden in the inner room. He snapped them off his arms like
threads.
13 Then Delilah complained to Samson, "Until now you have mocked
and told me lies. Tell me how you can be tied up." He told her,
"If you weave the seven locks of my hair into fabric of a
cloth on the loom and tighten it down with a shuttle pin,
then I will become weak as any other man."
14 While he slept, Delilah wove seven locks of his hair into
the fabric on the loom and tightened it down with the loom
shuttle pin, and cried out to him, "Samson, the Philistines
are upon you." He awoke out of his sleep, and tore away the
shuttle pin and the fabric.
15 Then she complained, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your
heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times,
and have not told me the secret of your great strength."

16 She nagged him day in and day out with her words, and pestered
him, so that he was tired to death of it.
17 So he told her everything, "No razor has come on my head,
for I have been a Nazirite to God from birth. If my head is
shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become
weak as any other man."
18 When Delilah realized that he had told her everything,
she sent and called for the rulers of the Philistines, saying,
"Come up one last time, for he has told me everything."
Then the rulers of the Philistines came up to her, and brought
the money in their hand.
19 So she made him sleep on her lap and she called in a man
to shave off seven locks of his head. This is how she brought
him down and his strength left him.
20 Then she cried out, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you."
He woke up, and thought, "I will go out as before and shake
myself free." But he did not realize that the LORD had
left him.

21 But the Philistines grabbed hold of him, and gouged out his
eyes. They brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze
chains. He ground grain in the prison house.
22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had
been shaved off.
23 The rulers of the Philistines gathered together to offer
a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to celebrate, for
they said, "Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us."
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they
said, "Our god has handed our enemy over to us, he was the
one who ruined our land, and killed so many of us."
25 When their hearts were merry, they said, "Call for Samson,
that he may amuse us." So they called Samson out of the prison
house and he performed for them. They had him stand between
the pillars.

26 Samson said to the lad that led him by the hand, "Let me
feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may
lean against them."
27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the rulers
of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof
about 3,000 men and women that watched while Samson amused them.
28 Samson prayed to the LORD, and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me,
I beg you, and strengthen me, this one last time. O God,
with one last blow may I get revenge on the Philistines
for my two eyes."
29 So Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the
temple rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right
hand, and the other with his left.
30 Then Samson prayed, "Let me die with the Philistines."
Then he pushed with all his might and the temple fell on
the rulers, and on all the people that were in there.
So he killed more at his death than he killed in his life.
31 Then his brothers and all his father's family came down
and brought him home, burying him between Zorah and Eshtaol
in the tomb of his father Manoah. He judged Israel
twenty years.

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