stines went up and camped in Judah and made a raid on
Lehi, the Judahites said, "Why have you come up against us?" They
replied, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him what he has done
to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cavern in the
cliff of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines
are our rulers? What are you doing to us?" He replied, "I have done to
them as they did to me." They said to him, "We have come down to bind
you, to turn you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear
to me that you will not attack me yourselves." They said to him, "No; we
will simply bind you securely and deliver you to them; but we will not
kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from
the cliff.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted when they met him. Then he
was suddenly given divine strength, and the ropes that were on his arms
became like flax that has been burned in the fire, and his bonds melted
from his hands. And he found a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and having
seized it, he killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said:

"With the jaw-bone of an ass have I piled them, mass on mass;
A thousand warriors have I slain with the jaw-bone of an ass."

A STRONG MAN WHO LOST HIS STRENGTH

Afterward, Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek,
named Delilah. Then the rulers of the Philistines came to her and said,
"Find out by teasing him how it is that his strength is so great and
how we may overpower and bind him that we may torture him. Then we will
each one of us give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." So Delilah
said to Samson, "Tell me how it is that your strength is so great and
how you might be bound to torture you?" Samson said to her, "If they
should bind me with seven green bowstrings which have not been dried, I
would become weak like any other man."

Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven green bowstrings
which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. She had the men
lying in wait in the inner room, but when she said to him, "The
Philistines are upon you, Samson!" he snapped the bowstrings as a piece
of yarn is snapped when it comes near the fire; so they did not find out
the secret of his strength.

Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have deceived me and lied to me; now
tell me with what you can be bound fast." He said to her, "If they
should bind me securely with new