1. And Shimshon went to Azzah and saw a woman there, a whore, and went in to her –
2. the Azzathites saying, “Shimshon has come here!” So they went round and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and kept silent all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, then we shall kill him.”
3. Now Shimshon lay until midnight, and rose at midnight, and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, and pulled them up with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and took them to the top of the hill that faces Ḥeḇron.
4. And it came to be afterward that he loved a woman in the wadi Sorĕq, whose name was Delilah.
5. And the princes of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and see by what we might overpower him, then we shall bind him to humble him. And let us give you, each one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6. And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Please reveal to me where your great strength lies, and by what you might be bound, to humble you.”
7. And Shimshon said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh cords, not yet dried, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”
8. The princes of the Philistines then brought her seven fresh cords, not yet dried, and she bound him with them,
9. while those lying in wait stayed with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he broke the cords as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
10. And Delilah said to Shimshon, “Look, you have mocked me and spoken lies to me. Now, please reveal to me by what you might be bound.”
11. And he said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall be weak, and be like any other man.”
12. And Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” And those lying in wait were sitting in the inner room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13. So Delilah said to Shimshon, “Until now you have mocked me and spoken lies to me, reveal to me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.”
14. Then she fastened it with a pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Shimshon!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.