Judges
Chapter 16
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1Samson went to Gaza and saw there a woman, a prostitute, and he went in to her.
2It was told to the Gazites, Samson has come here. They came around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, Until the light of morning, then we will kill him.
3Samson lay until the middle of the night. He got up in the middle of the night, seized the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4After that he loved a woman in the A stream bed that keeps water, or runs when the rain comes. Sorek, and her name was Delilah.
5The lords of the Philistines went up to her and said to her, Persuade him, and see in what his strength is great, and by what we can overcome him, so that we may bind him to humble him. We, each man, will give you eleven hundred of silver.
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- Translation
The line says eleven hundred of silver. It does not name the unit.
6Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me in what your strength is great, and with what you can be bound to humble you.
7Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like any other man.
8The lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9The ambush was sitting in the room for her. She said to him, Samson, the Philistines are on you. He snapped the cords as a strand of tow snaps when it smells fire. His strength was not known.
10Delilah said to Samson, Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now please tell me with what you can be bound.
11He said to her, If they bind me tight with new ropes, with which no work has been done, then I will become weak and be like any other man.
12Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and she said to him, Samson, the Philistines are on you. The ambush was sitting in the room. He snapped them off his arms like a thread.
13Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you can be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.
14She fastened it with the pin and said to him, Samson, the Philistines are on you. He woke from his sleep and pulled up the pin of the loom and the web.
15She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? These three times you have mocked me, and you have not told me in what your strength is great.
16Because she pressed him with her words every day and urged him, his soul was shortened to death.
17He told her all his heart, and he said to her, A razor has not come up on my head, for I have been a A person who takes a vow to be set apart. The hair is left uncut, and wine is not drunk. of God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.
18Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart. She sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this time, for he has told her all his heart. The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and they brought the silver up in their hand.
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The written consonants are lah, “to her.” The Masoretic reading is li, “to me.” The written “to her” is printed.
19She made him sleep on her knees, called for a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. She began to humble him, and his strength left him.
20She said, Samson, the Philistines are on you. He woke from his sleep and said, I will go out as time after time and shake myself free. He did not know that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. had left him.
21The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze. He became a grinder in the prison.
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The written consonants are ha-asirim, “the bound ones.” The Masoretic reading is ha-asurim, the same word with a different vowel letter. Both mean the prisoners. The written spelling is printed.
22The hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
23The lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and for rejoicing. They said, Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.
24The people saw him and praised their god, for they said, Our god has given into our hand our enemy, the one who ruined our land, and who multiplied our dead.
25And it happened, because their heart was good, that they said, Call Samson, and let him make sport for us. They called Samson from the prison, and he made sport before them. They stood him between the pillars.
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The written consonants are ki tov, two words, “because it was good.” The Masoretic reading is ketov, “when it was good.” The written two words are printed. The prison is again ha-asirim in the written spelling, ha-asurim in the Masoretic reading, the bound ones either way.
26Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Let me rest, and let me feel the pillars on which the house is set, so that I may lean on them.
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The written consonants are ve-haymisheni, with an extra yod. The Masoretic reading is va-hamisheni, “and let me feel.” The sense is the same. The written spelling is printed.
27The house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. On the roof there were about three thousand men and women, watching Samson make sport.
28Samson called to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. and said, Lord God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, just this once, O God, and let me take vengeance, one vengeance for my two eyes, from the Philistines.
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Adonai YHWH is Lord Yahweh. The second word is the name. It is pointed in this line like Elohim. The name is printed Yahweh. The appeal “O God” later in the line is Elohim.
29Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house was set, and he braced himself against them, one with his right hand and one with his left.
30Samson said, Let my life die with the Philistines. He pushed with strength, and the house fell on the lords and on all the people who were in it. The dead whom he put to death in his death were more than those he had put to death in his life.
31His brothers and all his father’s house came down, lifted him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.