4 Sometime after that, Shimshon (Samson) fell in love with a Pelishti woman named Dililah who lived in the Sorek valley. 5 The Pelishti leaders came to her and requested, “Make him open up. Find out what makes him strong, and how we can beat him, so that we can tie him up to keep him in our power. Then we’ll each give you one thousand one hundred silver coins.”

6 So Dililah asked Shimshon, “Please, tell me what makes you so strong, and how could someone tie you up to keep you in their power?”

7 “If they’d tie me up with seven green cords that haven’t been dried,” he replied, “then I’d become weak and be just like any other man.”

8 So the Pelishti leaders brought her seven green cords that hadn’t been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 Now she had an ambush group ready in the next room when she said to him, “The Pelishtim are here to get you, Shimshon!” But he tore the cords to shreds just like a strip of flax fiber is torn to shreds when the fire reaches it, thus they didn’t find out the secret of his strength. 10 Then Dililah said to him, “Listen, you deceived me and lied to me. Now tell me, please, how could someone tie you up?”

11 “Actually, if they would tie me with new ropes which have never been used,” he replied, “I’d become weak and be just like any other man.”

12 So Dililah took new cords and tied him up with them. She said to him, “The Pelishtim are here to get you, Shimshon!” with the ambush group staying in the next room. But he flicked them off his arms like they were just thread.

13 Then Dililah said to Shimshon, “So far you’ve just been deceitful to me and told me lies. Now Tell me how you can be tied up.”

So he told her, “It’s if you just weave seven locks of my hair into the loom.”

14 So she did it and fastened it with the pin, and called out, “The Pelishtim are here to get you, Shimshon!” Then he woke up and ripped out the pin, the loom, and his hair from the fabric.

15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart isn’t with me? You’ve been deceitful to me three times now, and you haven’t revealed to me the secret of your amazing strength.” 16 Day after day she nagged and pestered him until he was sick to death of hearing it. 17 So finally he told her his secret, “My hair has never been cut because I’ve been a Nazirite to God since my birth. If my head would be shaved, then my strength would leave me, and I’d become weak—I’d be just like any other man.”

18 When Dililah perceived that he’d told her his deepest secret, she summoned the Pelishti leaders, “Come here one more time, because he’s told me his secret.” So the Pelishti leaders came, bringing the silver coins with them. 19 Then she made him fall asleep on her knees, and she called in a man to shave off his seven locks of hair, causing him to start to weaken, and his additional strength left him. 20 Then she said, “The Pelishtim are here to get you, Shimshon!” He woke up and thought to himself, “I’ll escape like all the other times and I’ll shake myself loose.” But he didn’t know that Yahweh had left him. 21 So the Pelishtim seized him, and they gouged out his eyes. They brought him to Azah (Gaza) and chained him with a pair of bronze shackles, then they put him to work in prison grinding grain. 22 However, over time his hair began to grow back again.