The Book of Judges

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- Kapitel 16 -

Samson went to the city of Gaza. He saw a prostitute there, and he spent the night with her.

The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” They surrounded the place where Samson was, and they waited in secret all night long. They were beside the city gate, so they would be sure he could not escape. They said, “Let us wait until the light, and then we will kill him.”

But Samson did not stay there all night. At midnight, he got up. He went to the city gate, he took hold of its two posts, and he lifted them up out of the ground, with its connecting cross bar still attached. He put it on his shoulders and carried it many miles uphill, in front of the town of Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

Later Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. She lived in the Valley of Sorek (in the Philistine area).

The Philistine leaders went to her and said, “Use your tricks to find out from Samson what makes him so strong. And find out how we can subdue him and tie him up securely. If you do that, each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

So Delilah went to Samson and said, “Please tell me what makes you so strong, and tell me how someone can subdue you and tie you up.”

Samson said, “If someone ties me with seven new bowstrings, ones that are not dry yet, I will become as weak as other men.”

So after Delilah told that to the Philistine leaders, they brought seven new bowstrings to Delilah.

Then she hid the leaders in one of the rooms in her house. She tied Samson up with the bowstrings and then called out, “Samson! The Philistines have come here to capture you!” But Samson snapped the bowstrings as easily as though they had been strings that had been singed in a fire. So the Philistines did not find out what made Samson so strong.

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have deceived me and lied to me! Now tell me the truth, how someone can tie you up securely.”

Samson replied, “If someone ties me with new ropes, ones that have never been used, I will be as weak as other men.”

So again, she told the Philistine leaders, and then came and hid in the room as they did before. And again she called out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson snapped the ropes on his arms as easily as if they had been threads.

Then Delilah said, “You have deceived me and lied to me again! Please tell me how someone can tie you up securely!” Samson replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair into the threads you are weaving on the loom, and then fasten those threads with a nail that makes the threads tight, then I will become as weak as other men.” So again, Delilah held the seven braids of his hair, and wove them into the threads on the loom,

and she secured them with a pin. Then she called out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson woke up and pulled away his hair, taking with it the pin of the loom and the fabric in the loom.

Delilah Learns the Secret

Then Delilah said to him, “How can you say that you love me when you do not tell me the truth about yourself? You have deceived me three times, and you still have not told me what really makes you so strong!”

Day after day she used every trick to get him to tell her his secret. He thought he would die from her nagging.

Finally Samson told her the truth. He said, “I have been set apart for God since the day I was born. And because of that, my hair has never been cut. If my hair were shaved off, my strength would be gone, and I would be as weak as other men.”

Delilah realized that this time he had told her the truth. So she called together the Philistine leaders, saying, “Come back one more time, because Samson has finally told me the secret about his strength.” So the Philistine leaders returned and gave Delilah the money they promised to give her.

Again she lulled Samson to sleep, with his head in her lap. Then she called one of the Philistine men to come and cut off Samson’s hair. As he did that, Samson became weak; he had no more strength.

Then 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.

So 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 large millstone to grind grain every day.

But his hair started to grow again after it had been cut.

Samson’s Vengeance and Death

Several 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!”

When the other people saw Samson, they also praised their god Dagon, saying, “Our god has put our great enemy into our hands. Our god helped us to capture the one who has harmed our country so much!”

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

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

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

Samson prayed to Yahweh and he said, “Lord Yahweh, think about me again! Please give me strength only this once more, so that I may get revenge on the Philistines for gouging out my eyes!”

Then Samson held on to the two center pillars on which the building rested. He leaned against them, one pillar with his right hand, and his left hand on the other pillar.

Then he shouted to God, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his strength. The pillars collapsed, and the temple crashed down on the Philistine leaders and all the other Philistine people, and they all died. So Samson killed more people when he died than he had killed all during his life.

Later his brothers and their relatives went down from Zorah to Gaza to get his body. They took it back home and buried it between Zorah and Eshtaol, at the place where Samson’s father Manoah was buried. Now Samson had led Israel for twenty years.

Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.

The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light; then we will kill him.”

Samson lay until midnight, then arose at midnight and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, with the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”

Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.”

Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He broke the cords as a flax thread is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.

Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies. Now please tell me how you might be bound.”

He said to her, “If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.”

So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, then said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” The ambush was waiting in the inner room. He broke them off his arms like a thread.

Delilah said to Samson, “Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the fabric on the loom.”

She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are on you, Samson!” He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam and the fabric.

Delilah Learns the Secret

She said to him, “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 where your great strength lies.”

When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his soul was troubled to death.

He told her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me and I will become weak, and be like any other man.”

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.

She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke out of his sleep, and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the LORD had departed from him.

The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison.

However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.

Samson’s Vengeance and Death

The lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.”

When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand.”

When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, that he may entertain us.” They called for Samson out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars;

and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Allow me to feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean on them.”

Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson performed.

Samson called to the LORD, and said, “Lord GOD, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested and leaned on them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life.

Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.