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

It was told the Gazites, saying, “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, Let be until morning light, then we will kill him.

Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and 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.

¶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 string of tow 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 with which 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 therewith, and 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 web.”

¶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 web.

¶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.”

¶It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was troubled to death.