Samson Escapes Gaza 1 UST Samson later went to the city of Gaza. He saw a prostitute there, and he had sexual relations with her{ and then stayed in her room}. BSB BSB: One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.
2 UST People told the leaders of the Gazites,“Samson has come inside our city!” So the leaders sent men to surround the place where Samson was. They waited there secretly all night. The leaders also put guards at the city gate. But they did not try to capture Samson that night. They decided that once day came,{ they would be able to see clearly} to catch him and kill him. BSB BSB: When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.”
3 UST But Samson did not stay where he was all night. At midnight, he got up. He went to the city gate{ to leave the city, but he found that it was barred shut}. So he lifted the entire gate up out of the ground, the doors and their posts and the bar. He carried all of this on his shoulders uphill{ for many miles,} all the way to the top of the hill near the town of Hebron. BSB BSB: But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.
Samson and Delilah 4 UST Later Samson fell in love with a woman who lived in the Valley of Sorek. Her name was Delilah. BSB BSB: Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 UST The Philistine leaders came to her and said,“See if you can get Samson to tell you what makes him so strong. See if you can find out how we can capture him and tie him up so that he cannot get away. If you do that, each of us will give you 1, 100 pieces of silver.” BSB BSB: The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
6 UST So Delilah told Samson,“I want you to explain to me what makes you so strong. Tell me how anyone could ever tie you up to capture you.” BSB BSB: So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
7 UST Samson replied,“If someone ties me with seven new bowstrings, ones that are not dry yet, I will have only the strength of an ordinary person.” BSB BSB: Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.”
8 UST So{ Delilah told this to the Philistine leaders, and} they brought her seven new bowstrings.{ When Samson fell asleep,} she used them to tie him up. BSB BSB: So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.
9 UST Some men were hiding in one of the other rooms in her house{ to capture Samson when they were sure that the bowstrings would restrain him}. Delilah called out,“Samson! The Philistines have come here to capture you!” But Samson{ woke up and} snapped the bowstrings as easily as fire burns through string. So the Philistines did not find out what made Samson so strong. BSB BSB: While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.
10 UST Then Delilah said to Samson,“Now listen, you made up a story to trick me! Now tell me how someone can really tie you up securely.” BSB BSB: Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”
11 UST Samson replied,“If someone actually ties me up with new ropes, ones that no one has used for anything else, then I will have only the strength of an ordinary person.” BSB BSB: He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.”
12 UST So Delilah{ once again told the Philistine leaders what Samson had said. She} got some new ropes, and she had men hide in one of the rooms in her house.{ When Samson fell asleep,} she tied him up with the ropes. Then she called out,“Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson{ woke up and} snapped the ropes off his arms as easily as if they had been threads. BSB BSB: So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.
13 UST Then Delilah told Samson,“You made up another story to trick me! Now tell me how someone can really tie you up securely.” Samson replied,“You have a loom here with threads going in one direction. If you weave the seven braids of my hair into those threads in the other direction,{ as if you were making fabric,} then I will have only the strength of an ordinary person.” BSB BSB: Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.”
14 UST So Delilah{ once again told the Philistine leaders what Samson had said, and she had men hide in one of the rooms in her house. Then she} used a shuttle to weave the seven braids of Samson’ s hair in and out of the threads she had on her loom. Then she called out,“Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” When Samson woke up, his hair was still in the shuttle. But he pulled it right out of the threads on the loom. BSB BSB: So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.
Delilah Learns the Secret 15 UST After this, Delilah said to him,“You say that you love me, but I do not believe that you do, because you have not told me the truth about yourself. You have tricked me three times and you have not really told me what makes you so strong!” BSB BSB: “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”
16 UST Day after day she nagged him relentlessly to tell her his secret. He felt as if he was going to die from her nagging. BSB BSB: Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,
17 UST So finally Samson told her the whole truth. He told her,“My parents dedicated me to God as a Nazirite on the day I was born. Because of that, no one has ever cut my hair. If someone did shave the hair off my head, then I would lose my great strength. I would have only the strength of an ordinary person.” BSB BSB: Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”
18 UST Delilah realized that this time he had told her the whole truth. So she sent someone to get the Philistine leaders. She told them,“Come back one more time, because Samson has finally told me the secret of his strength.” So the Philistine leaders came back to her house and brought the money they had promised to give her. BSB BSB: When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.
19 UST Then she got Samson to fall deeply asleep. Then she called one of the Philistine men to come and cut off Samson’ s hair. This would enable the Philistines to capture him, because he would lose his great strength. BSB BSB: And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.
20 UST Then she called out,“Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” He woke up and thought,“I will be able to do whatever I need to do to get away from them, just as I did the other times!” But he did not realize that Yahweh was no longer helping him. BSB BSB: Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
21 UST Instead, the Philistine men captured him. They blinded him by gouging out both of his eyes{ so that he could no longer attack any of them}. Then they took him to Gaza. They put him in prison there and put bronze chains on him{ so he could not escape}. They made him turn a large millstone to grind grain every day. BSB BSB: Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
22 UST But his hair started to grow again after the man had cut it. BSB BSB: However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.
Samson’s Vengeance and Death 23 UST Then the Philistine leaders had a big celebration. They offered many sacrifices to their god Dagon. They praised him, saying,“Our god has enabled us to capture Samson, who did so many things to harm us!” BSB BSB: Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”
24 UST When the other people at the festival saw Samson, they also praised their god Dagon, saying,“Samson harmed us greatly. He killed many of our soldiers and ruined many of our crops, but our god Dagon has enabled us to capture him!” BSB BSB: And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroyed our land and multiplied our dead.”
25 UST The people drank a lot of wine and began to become drunk. Then they shouted,“Get Samson out of the prison! Bring him here so we can ridicule him!” So they brought Samson from the prison and made him stand{ in the center of the temple,} between the pillars that supported the roof. The people ridiculed him. BSB BSB: And while their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars.
26 UST Samson said to the servant who was leading him by the hand{ because he was blind},“I want to rest. Place my hands against the two pillars that support the roof so that I can lean against them.” BSB BSB: Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”
27 UST All the Philistine leaders were in the temple, along with a great crowd of men and women. There were about 3, 000 people on the roof, looking at Samson and ridiculing him. BSB BSB: Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
28 UST Samson prayed to Yahweh and said,“Lord Yahweh, please think about me again! Please, God, give me strength just once more so that I can take revenge on the Philistines for gouging out my eyes!” BSB BSB: Then Samson called out to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”
29 UST Then Samson put his right hand on one of the central pillars of the temple, and he put his left hand on the other one. He pushed hard against both pillars. BSB BSB: And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other,
30 UST Then Samson shouted,“I am going to kill all these Philistines, even though I have to die myself!” He pushed on the pillars as hard as he could, and he broke them and the temple collapsed. This killed the Philistine leaders and all the other people who were in the temple. So Samson killed more people when he died than he had killed while he was alive. BSB BSB: Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.
31 UST Later his brothers and other relatives traveled from Zorah to Gaza to get his body. They took it back home and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, at the place where people had previously buried his father Manoah. Samson had led Israel for 20 years. BSB BSB: Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.