But Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend.

Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

He said to her, "If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man."

He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man."

Then the elders of the congregation said, "How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?"