1. Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and spent the night with her.
2. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded him and laid in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “In the morning light we will kill him.”
3. Samson lay until midnight, then at midnight he got up. He grabbed the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts and pulled them out along with the bar. He put them on his shoulder and brought them to the top of the mountain near Hebron.
4. After this Samson loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5. The Philistine rulers came up to her and said, “Trick him! Find out about how his strength is so great and how we can overcome him, bind him, and humiliate him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver coins.”
6. So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me how your strength is so great and how you could be bound in order to be subdued.”
7. Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”
8. So the Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9. They lay in wait in her inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” Then he split apart the bowstrings like a single thread is split apart at the touch of fire. So the source of his strength did not become known.
10. Delilah said to Samson, “You have deceived me. You have told me lies. Now, please tell me how you can be bound.”
11. He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have never been used, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”