# Delilah and Samson’s capture Conquest & Judges · Draft · BSB Content revision: 3e409dc760493887 · No editorial review date recorded [Citation / readable page](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-delilah/) [Open interactive map](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?event=samson-delilah) [Markdown](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-delilah/index.md) [JSON](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-delilah/index.json) Date: Later in Samson’s life · Before his final captivity After an earlier escape from Gaza, Samson falls in love with Delilah in the Valley of Sorek. Paid by Philistine rulers, she presses him until he discloses his consecration. His hair is cut, the LORD has departed from him, and he is captured, blinded and imprisoned in Gaza. The chapter distinguishes the earlier woman in Gaza from Delilah in Sorek. Verse 20 explains the loss of strength through the LORD’s departure; the story is not simply about hair as a magical object. ## Primary Scripture [Judges 16:1–22 (BSB)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2016%3A1%E2%80%9322&version=BSB) 16:1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her. 16:2 When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.” 16:3 But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron. 16:4 Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 16:5 The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” 16:7 Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.” 16:8 So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. 16:9 While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown. 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.” 16:11 He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.” 16:12 So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads. 16:13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.” 16:14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web. 16:15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!” 16:16 Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, 16:17 Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.” 16:18 When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands. 16:19 And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. 16:20 Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison. 16:22 However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved. ## Related Scripture [Judges 13:3–5 · recollection](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2013%3A3%E2%80%935&version=BSB) Samson’s disclosure recalls the consecration announced before his birth. ## Location evidence The shaded Sorek valley is approximate; Delilah’s home is unlocated. Gaza marks the later captivity. No exact route or hill carrying the city gates is plotted. Event map marker: Approximate region; \[longitude, latitude\] = \[35.05, 31.76\]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue. Gaza: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[34.4644, 31.504\]. Classification source: editorial. [OpenBible · Gaza](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/aa8edd2/gaza) Valley of Sorek: Approximate region. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.05, 31.76\]. Classification source: editorial. Illustrative regional extent: \[\[34.88,31.72\],\[35.15,31.81\]\]; not a measured confidence interval. [Biblical setting · Judges 16:4](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2016:4&version=BSB) [OpenBible · possible locations / region](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a339971/valley-of-sorek) [Biblical setting · Judges 16:4](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2016:4&version=BSB) [OpenBible · possible locations / region](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a339971/valley-of-sorek) ## For the class What does Samson assume he can still do, and what has he failed to recognize? ## Interpretation and reuse Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review. Record source: editorial (content/authored/conquest-judges.json) Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0. Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas. Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm [Use this atlas with AI / data documentation](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/ai/)