¹³ Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have 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 sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric ¹⁴ and^[a] tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”^(A) He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

¹⁵ Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’^(B) when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time^(C) you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.^(D)” ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

¹⁷ So he told her everything.^(E) “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite^(F) dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines^(G), “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.^{(H) 19} After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.^[b] And his strength left him.^(I)

²⁰ Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”^(J)

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.^(K)