Samson Escapes Gaza
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her. Jos 15:47Gen 38:16-18Ezr 9:1-2Gen 10:19
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.” Psa 118:10-121Sa 23:26Act 9:241Sa 19:112Co 11:32-33Act 23:15Jdg 15:18Mat 21:38
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. Act 2:24Psa 107:16Isa 63:1-5Mic 2:13
Samson and Delilah
Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. Pro 22:141Co 10:6Pro 23:271Ki 11:1Neh 13:26Pro 26:11Pro 27:22 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. 1” Jdg 14:15Jos 13:31Ti 6:9-101Co 6:15-181Sa 29:6Gen 33:16Jdg 17:2Jdg 3:3
So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Mic 7:2Psa 12:2Jer 9:2-5Mic 7:5Pro 22:14Pro 26:28Pro 6:26Pro 7:21
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.” Col 3:9Gal 6:7Pro 12:191Sa 19:171Sa 21:2-31Sa 27:10Jdg 16:10Pro 17:7
So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. Ecc 7:26 While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Psa 58:9
But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.
Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.” Ezk 33:31Jdg 16:13Luk 22:48Pro 24:28Jdg 16:15-17Jdg 16:7Pro 23:7-8
He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.” Eph 4:25Pro 13:3Pro 29:25Jdg 15:13Pro 13:5
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.
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. 2”
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. 3Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Ezr 9:13-14Psa 106:43
But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.
Delilah Learns the Secret
“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!” Jdg 14:161Jn 2:15-16Jhn 15:10Pro 23:262Co 5:14-15Jhn 14:15Pro 5:3-14Sng 8:6-7
Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, Pro 7:21-23Luk 18:5Job 21:4Jon 4:9Luk 11:8Mrk 14:24Pro 7:26-27 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.” Mic 7:5Jdg 13:5Pro 12:23Num 6:5Act 18:18Num 6:2Pro 29:12
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.” 1Ti 6:10Mat 26:15Jdg 16:5Jer 9:4-61Ki 21:20Eph 5:5Num 22:7Pro 18:8
Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.
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, 4 and his strength left him. Pro 7:26-27Ecc 7:26Pro 7:21-23Pro 23:33-34 Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Num 14:42-431Sa 16:141Sa 18:122Ch 15:2Isa 59:1-2Jos 7:121Sa 28:14-162Co 3:5
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.
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. Pro 2:19Pro 14:14Exo 11:5Isa 47:2Mat 24:412Ch 33:112Ki 25:7Pro 5:22
However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved. Lev 26:44Psa 106:44-45Psa 107:13-14Deu 32:36
Samson’s Vengeance and Death
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.” Pro 24:171Sa 5:2-51Ch 10:101Co 8:4-5Jer 2:11Job 30:9-10Mic 4:5Psa 35:15-16
And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: Dan 5:41Sa 31:9Rev 11:101Ch 10:9Dan 5:23Deu 32:27Ezk 20:14Hab 1:16
“Our god has delivered into our hands
our enemy who destroyed our land
and multiplied our dead.”
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. 2Sa 13:28Heb 11:36Jdg 19:6Jdg 9:27Psa 35:15-161Ki 20:12Dan 5:2-3Est 3:15
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.”
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. Deu 22:82Sa 11:2Jos 2:8Jdg 9:51
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.” Jer 15:15Lam 3:31-32Psa 143:12Psa 91:15Rev 6:10Psa 50:15Psa 58:10-112Ti 4:14
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, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Mat 16:25Php 2:81Th 5:2Act 21:13Mat 24:38-39Php 2:17Act 20:24Col 2:15
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.
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. Jdg 15:20Jdg 13:2Jdg 13:25Jhn 19:39-42Jos 19:41