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1–3. Samson's visit to Gaza. 4–20. His passion for Delilah and its disastrous consequences for Samson. 21–30. Samson's dying revenge on the Philistines. 31. Death and burial place of Samson. Judges 16:1. One day Samson came to Gaza and, seeing a harlot there, went in to her. Judges 16:2. The people of Gaza were told: Samson came here. And they walked around and lay in wait for him all night at the gates of the city, and hid all night, saying: Let us wait until morning light and kill him. Judges 16:3. And Samson slept until midnight; At midnight, getting up, he grabbed the doors of the city gate with both jambs, lifted them together with the lock, put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain, which is on the way to Hebron, [and laid them there]. Samson, surrounded in Gaza by the inhabitants of the city who intended to kill him, left the city at midnight, tore out the city gates and carried them to the top of a mountain located 1/2 hour north of Gaza, now called Mount Samson (Robinson). Judges 16:4. After that, he fell in love with a woman who lived in the Sorek valley; her name is Dalida. Judges 16:5. The Philistine owners came to her and said to her: persuade him and find out what his great strength is and how we can overcome him, in order to bind him and pacify him; and we will give you every one thousand and one hundred shekels of silver. Judges 16:6. And Delilah said to Samson: Tell me, what is your great strength, and how can I bind you to subdue you? Judges 16:7. Samson said to her: if they bind me with seven damp bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become powerless and will be like other people. Judges 16:8. And the owners of the Philistines brought her seven wet bowstrings that had not dried up, and she tied him with them. Judges 16:9. [Meanwhile, one was secretly sitting in her bedroom.] And she said to him: Samson! The Philistines are coming against you. He tore the bowstrings as one breaks a thread of tow when the fire has burned through it. And his strength is not recognized. Judges 16:10. And Delilah said to Samson: Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; tell me now, how to bind you? Judges 16:11. He told her: if they tie me with new ropes that were not used, then I will become powerless and will be like other people. Judges 16:12. Delilah took new ropes and tied him up and said to him: Samson! The Philistines are coming against you. [Meanwhile, one was sitting secretly in the bedroom.] And he tore them from his hands like threads. Judges 16:13. And Delilah said to Samson: You all deceive me and tell me lies; tell me, how can I tie you up? He said to her: if you stick the seven braids of my head into the cloth and nail it to the weaving block, [then I will be powerless, like other people]. Judges 16:14. [And Delilah put him to sleep on her knees. And when he fell asleep, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, and attached them to the block, and said to him: The Philistines are coming against you, Samson! He woke up from his sleep and pulled out the weaving block along with the cloth; [and his strength is not recognized]. Judgment 16:15 . And [Delilah] said to him: How can you say, “I love you,” but your heart is not with me? Behold, you have deceived me three times, and have not told me what your great strength is. Judges 16:16. And as she weighed him down with her words every day and tormented him, his soul became heavy to the point of death. Judges 16:17. And he opened his whole heart to her and said to her, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother’s womb; if you shave me, then my strength will depart from me; I will become weak and be like other people. Judges 16:18. Delilah, seeing that he had opened his whole heart to her, sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying to them: Go now; he opened his whole heart to me. And the rulers of the Philistines came to her and brought silver in their hands. Judges 16:19. And she [Delilah] put him to sleep on her knees, and called a man, and ordered him to cut off the seven braids of his head. And he began to weaken, and his strength departed from him. Judgment 16:20 . She said: The Philistines are coming against you, Samson! He awoke from his sleep and said: I will go as before, and I will be free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Samson's passion for Delilah, who lived in the Sorek valley, now Wadi es Serar, in the north of which the ruins of the town of Sorek are shown, was disastrous for Samson. Judges 16:21. The Philistines took him and gouged out his eyes, brought him to Gaza and bound him with two copper chains, and he ground in the house of the prisoners. Taken by the Philistines, Samson was blinded, brought to Gaza and, as a captive (cf. Is. 47:2), was placed in prison, where he set a millstone in motion. Judges 16:22. Meanwhile, the hair on his head began to grow where it had been cut. Judges 16:23. The rulers of the Philistines gathered together to make a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice, and they said: Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands. Judges 16:24. Also, when the people saw him, they glorified their god, saying: Our God has delivered into our hands our enemy and the desolator of our land, who slew many of us. Judgment 16:25 . And when their hearts were merry, they said: Call Samson [from the prison house], let him amuse us. And they called Samson from the house of the prisoners, and he amused them, [and they strangled him] and set him between the pillars. Judges 16:26. And Samson said to the youth who was leading him by the hand: Bring me along so that I can feel the pillars on which the house is built and lean against them. [The boy did so.] Judges 16:27. The house was full of men and women; All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were up to three thousand men and women, looking at Samson amusing them. Judges 16:28. And Samson cried to the Lord and said: Lord God! remember me and strengthen me only now, O God! so that I can take revenge on the Philistines once for my two eyes. Judges 16:29. And Samson moved the two middle pillars on which the house was built, leaning against them, one with his right hand, and the other with his left. Court 16:30 . And Samson said: Die, my soul, with the Philistines! And he resisted with all his strength, and the house collapsed on the owners and on all the people who were in it. And the dead whom [Samson] slew at his death were more than he slew in his life. On the feast of the Philistine god Dagon, who symbolized the power of fertility and was depicted with the head and arms of a man and the body of a fish (1 Samuel 5:4), Samson, brought for the amusement of those celebrating in the courtyard of the church, stood among two columns that supported the roof of the terrace surrounding the church of Dagon, and moved them from their place. The roof of the church terrace, which collapsed as a result, crushed to death many Philistines standing under it, and among them Samson himself. Judges 16:31. And his brothers and all his father's house came and took him, and went and buried him between Zorah and Estaol, in the tomb of his father Manoah. He was a judge of Israel for twenty years. [After Samson, Emegar the son of Enan rebelled and killed six hundred of the foreigners, besides cattle. And he saved Israel.] Samson's tomb was located near Zorah (Sar'a). It was seen, by the way, by Rabbi Isaac Shelo, who traveled to Palestine in 1333. Guerin now places the tomb of Vili-Sheikh-Gerib on the site of Samson’s tomb (Guerin, Description geografique, historiqne et archelogique de la Palestine, Indee, t. III, p. 324–326). You might be interested in: