Then the <sc>Lordsc> himself<n id="1" /> turned to him and said, &#8220;You have the strength.<n id="2" /> Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites!<n id="3" /> Have I not sent you?&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">So Delilah said to Samson, &#8220;Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.&#8221;<n id="1" />

She made him go to sleep on her lap<n id="1" /> and then called a man in to shave off<n id="2" /> the seven braids of his hair.<n id="3" /> She made him vulnerable<n id="4" /> and his strength left him.

The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, &#8220;Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate<n id="1" /> him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.&#8221;p>

They hid<n id="1" /> in the bedroom and then she said to him, &#8220;The Philistines are here,<n id="2" /> Samson!&#8221; He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire.<n id="3" /> The secret of his strength was not discovered.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">She said to him, &#8220;How can you say, &#8216;I love you,&#8217; when you will not share your secret with me?<n id="1" /> Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.&#8221;

Finally he told her his secret.<n id="1" /> He said to her, &#8220;My hair has never been cut,<n id="2" /> for I have been dedicated to God<n id="3" /> from the time I was conceived.<n id="4" /> If my head<n id="5" /> were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.&#8221;

Samson said, &#8220;Let me die with the Philistines!&#8221; He pushed hard<n id="1" /> and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life.<n id="2" />