After that Samson fell in love with a woman called Delilah. The Philistines came and enticed her with a big offer of money, asking her to find out the secret of Samson's strength and to tell them. He told her that if he was bound with seven fresh cords he would not be able to get free. So she tied him with such cords and then shouted saying the Philistines were coming. He got up, broke the cords and got up. Then Delilah acted sad for his cheating her, and asked again for his secret. This time he said he should be tied up with fresh ropes. She tried that, but Samson broke them also when he was told the Philistines were coming. This time Samson told her that if his hair was tied up in seven clusters and pinned to the ground he would not be strong. She tried this also, but this also did not work. Finally she told him she felt he didn't really love her and he had been cheating her all the time. This time he felt very bad, and revealed to her that if his long hair was cut, he would lose his strength. She realised now that this was the truth, and got his hair shaved off while he was sleeping on her lap.

Now when she cried out that the Philistines were coming, Samson got up as usual, not realising that God's strength was gone from him. The Philistines got him, plucked out his eyes, and tied him with bronze chains in a prison. But in the course of time, his hair began to grow again.

When Samson realised what had happened, he asked God to give him strength one more time so that he could take revenge on the Philistines. On the festival day of the Philistine god Dagon, when large numbers of them were gathered in a big hall to celebrate, they took Samson there to have some fun with him. He asked someone to place his hands on the pillars of that building so that he could lean against them. With a mighty exercise of his supernatural strength he pulled those pillars down, and the building came crashing down, killing al the Philistines there, along with him. In this way, Samson won a great victory over the Philistines for Israel.