Samson and Delilah
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One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.
He went in to spend the night with her.
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The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here! " So they surrounded the place
and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move
during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."
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But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night.
Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate,
together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all.
He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them
to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4
Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek
whose name was Delilah.
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The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into
showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him
so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you
eleven hundred shekels of silver."
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So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength
and how you can be tied up and subdued."
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Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you havae been making a fool of me
and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied." He replied, "If you weave
the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom. and tighten it
with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleepting,
Deliah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric
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The Death of Samson
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Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon
their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson,
our enemy, into our hands."
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Then his brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him.
They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol
in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.
