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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Judges 16 New American Bible</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/judges/16.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/judges/16-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NABRE</a> > Judges 16</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../judges/15.htm" title="Judges 15">◄</a> Judges 16 <a href="../judges/17.htm" title="Judges 17">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New American Bible Revised Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><section id="ch07016" class="chapter"> <h1 id="cn07016" class="cn"></h1> <p class="pf"><span id="v07016001" class="ver">1</span>Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and visited her. <span id="v07016002" class="ver">2</span>The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here,” and they surrounded him with an ambush at the city gate all night long. And all the night they waited, saying, “At morning light we will kill him.” <span id="v07016003" class="ver">3</span>Samson lay there until midnight. Then he rose at midnight, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He hoisted them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the ridge opposite Hebron.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Samson and Delilah.</span> <span id="v07016004" class="ver">4</span>After that he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek whose name was Delilah. <span id="v07016005" class="ver">5</span><a id="ren07016005-a" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016005-a">a</a> The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said, “Trick him and find out where he gets his great strength, and how we may overcome and bind him so as to make him helpless. Then for our part, we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”</p> <p><span id="v07016006" class="ver">6</span>So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me where you get your great strength and how you may be bound so as to be made helpless.” <span id="v07016007" class="ver">7</span>“If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not dried,” Samson answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” <span id="v07016008" class="ver">8</span>So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried, and she bound him with them. <span id="v07016009" class="ver">9</span>She had men lying in wait in the room, and she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of tow is snapped by a whiff of flame; and his strength remained unexplained.</p> <p><span id="v07016010" class="ver">10</span>Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me how you may be bound.” <span id="v07016011" class="ver">11</span>“If they bind me tight with new ropes, with which no work has been done,” he answered her, “I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” <span id="v07016012" class="ver">12</span>So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” For there were men lying in wait in the room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.</p> <p><span id="v07016013" class="ver">13</span>Delilah said to Samson again, “Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web and fasten them with the pin, I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” <span id="v07016014" class="ver">14</span>So when he went to bed, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web, and fastened them with the pin. Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” Awakening from his sleep, he pulled out both the loom and the web.</p> <p><span id="v07016015" class="ver">15</span><a id="ren07016015-b" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016015-b">b</a> Then she said to him, “How can you say ‘I love you’ when your heart is not mine? Three times already you have mocked me, and not told me where you get your great strength!” <span id="v07016016" class="ver">16</span><a id="ren07016016-c" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016016-c">c</a> She pressed him continually and pestered him till he was deathly weary of it. <span id="v07016017" class="ver">17</span>So he told her all that was in his heart and said, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a nazirite for God from my mother’s womb.<a id="ren07016017-d" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016017-d">d</a> If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall grow weaker and be like anyone else.” <span id="v07016018" class="ver">18</span>When Delilah realized that he had told her all that was in his heart, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came to her and brought the money with them.<a id="ren07016018-e" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016018-e">e</a> <span id="v07016019" class="ver">19</span>She put him to sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair. He immediately became helpless, for his strength had left him.<a id="rfn07016019-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07016019-1">*</a> <span id="v07016020" class="ver">20</span>When she said “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as I have done time and again and shake myself free.” He did not realize that the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> had left him. <span id="v07016021" class="ver">21</span>But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding grain in the prison. <span id="v07016022" class="ver">22</span>But the hair of his head began to grow as soon as it was shaved.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">The Death of Samson.</span> <span id="v07016023" class="ver">23</span><a id="ren07016023-f" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016023-f">f</a> The lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon<a id="rfn07016023-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn07016023-1">*</a> and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our power.” <span id="v07016024" class="ver">24</span>When the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said,</p> <div class="senseline"> <p class="slf">“Our god has delivered into our power</p> <p class="sl1">our enemy, the ravager of our land,</p> <p class="sl1l">the one who has multiplied our slain.”</p> </div> <p class="pcon"><span id="v07016025" class="ver">25</span>When their spirits were high, they said, “Call Samson that he may amuse us.” So they called Samson from the prison, and he provided amusement for them. They made him stand between the columns, <span id="v07016026" class="ver">26</span>and Samson said to the attendant who was holding his hand, “Put me where I may touch the columns that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” <span id="v07016027" class="ver">27</span>The temple was full of men and women: all the lords of the Philistines were there, and from the roof about three thousand men and women looked on as Samson provided amusement. <span id="v07016028" class="ver">28</span>Samson cried out to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> and said, “Lord <span class="tetr">God</span>, remember me! Strengthen me only this once that I may avenge myself on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.” <span id="v07016029" class="ver">29</span>Samson grasped the two middle columns on which the temple rested and braced himself against them, one at his right, the other at his left. <span id="v07016030" class="ver">30</span>Then saying, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Samson pushed hard, and the temple fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. Those he killed by his dying were more than those he had killed during his lifetime.</p> <p><span id="v07016031" class="ver">31</span>His kinsmen and all his father’s house went down and bore him up for burial in the grave of Manoah his father between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had judged Israel for twenty years.<a id="ren07016031-g" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en07016031-g">g</a></p> </section> <br /><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="intro.htm"><span class="ac">Book Introduction</span></a></h1><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="footnotes.htm"><span class="ac">Footnotes</span></a></h1></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the <i>New American Bible, revised edition</i> © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. 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