Study Desk

Now Samson lay asleep until midnight, and at midnight he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.

After this it came about that he was in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh animal tendons that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man."

Then the governors of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh animal tendons that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have toyed with me and told me lies; now please tell me how you may be bound."

Then he said to her, "If they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any other man."

So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" For the men in the ambush were waiting in the inner room. But he tore the ropes from his arms like thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Up to now you have toyed with me and told me lies; tell me how you may be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web [and fasten it with the pin, then I will be weak like any other man."

So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven locks of his hair with the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.

Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have toyed with me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is."

And it came about, when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.

Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and restrained him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison.

Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed outwards powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime.

And he said to his mother, "The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and also spoke it in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the LORD."

Micah then said to him, "Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance." So the Levite went in.

The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

So the five men departed and came to Laish, and saw the people who were in it living in security, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting; for there was no oppressive ruler humiliating them for anything in the land, and they were far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone.

"When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious land; for God has handed it over to you, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

Then from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men armed with weapons of war set out.