Judges 16:15-22

New International Version

¹⁵ Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’^(A) when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time^(B) you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.^(C)” ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

¹⁷ So he told her everything.^(D) “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite^(E) dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines^(F), “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.^{(G) 19} After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.^[a] And his strength left him.^(H)

²⁰ Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”^(I)

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.^(J)

²¹ Then the Philistines^(K) seized him, gouged out his eyes^(L) and took him down to Gaza.^(M) Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain^(N) in the prison. ²² But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.