Judges 16:1-22

Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her.
The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here."  So they circled around and
lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.  They kept quiet all
night, thinking, "Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will
kill him."  But Samson lay only until midnight.  Then at midnight he rose
up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them
up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of
the hill that is in front of Hebron.

After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name
was Delilah.  The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her,
"Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may
overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will
each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."  So Delilah said to
Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you
could be bound, so that one could subdue you."  Samson said to her, "If
they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I
shall become weak, and be like anyone else."  Then the lords of the
Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and
she bound him with them.  While men were lying in wait in an inner
chamber, she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!"  But he
snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the
fire.  So the secret of his strength was not known.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies; please
tell me how you could be bound."  He said to her, "If they bind me with
new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like
anyone else."  So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said
to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!"  (The men lying in wait
were in an inner chamber.)  But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a
thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me
lies; tell me how you could be bound."  He said to her, "If you weave the
seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I
shall become weak, and be like anyone else."  So while he slept, Delilah
took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web, and made them
tight with the pin.  Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you,
Samson!"  But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom,
and the web.

Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is
not with me?  You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what
makes your strength so great."  Finally, after she had nagged him with her
words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.  So he told
her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my
head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother's womb.  If my head
were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be
like anyone else."

When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent and
called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "This time come up, for he
has told his whole secret to me."  Then the lords of the Philistines came
up to her, and brought the money in their hands.  She let him fall asleep
on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of
his head.  He began to weaken, and his strength left him.  Then she said,
"The Philistines are upon you, Samson!"  When he awoke from his sleep, he
thought, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free."  But he
did not know that the LORD had left him.  So the Philistines seized him
and gouged out his eyes.  They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with
bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison.  But the hair of
his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.