Judges 16

Jud 16:1-3.

SAMSON

CARRIES

AWAY THE

GATES OF

GAZA.

1, 2. Gaza--now Guzzah, the capital of the largest of the five

Philistine principal cities, about fifteen miles southwest of Ashkelon.

The object of this visit to this city is not recorded, and unless he

had gone in disguise, it was a perilous exposure of his life in one of

the enemy's strongholds. It soon became known that he was there; and it

was immediately resolved to secure him. But deeming themselves certain

of their prey, the Gazites deferred the execution of their measure till

the morning.

3. Samson . . . arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of

the city--A ruinous pile of masonry is still pointed out as the site

of the gate. It was probably a part of the town wall, and as this ruin

is "toward Hebron," there is no improbability in the tradition.

carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron--That hill

is El-Montar; but by Hebron in this passage is meant "the mountains of

Hebron"; for otherwise Samson, had he run night and day from the time

of his flight from Gaza, could only have come on the evening of the

following day within sight of the city of Hebron. The city of Gaza was,

in those days, probably not less than three-quarters of an hour distant

from El-Montar. To have climbed to the top of this hill with the

ponderous doors and their bolts on his shoulders, through a road of

thick sand, was a feat which none but a Samson could have accomplished

[VAN

DE

VELDE].

Jud 16:4-14.

DELILAH

CORRUPTED BY THE

PHILISTINES.

4. he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek--The location of this

place is not known, nor can the character of Delilah be clearly

ascertained. Her abode, her mercenary character, and her heartless

blandishments afford too much reason to believe she was a profligate

woman.

5. the lords of the Philistines--The five rulers deemed no means

beneath their dignity to overcome this national enemy.

Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth--They probably

imagined that he carried some amulet about his person, or was in the

possession of some important secret by which he had acquired such

herculean strength; and they bribed Delilah, doubtless by a large

reward, to discover it for them. She undertook the service and made

several attempts, plying all her arts of persuasion or blandishment in

his soft and communicative moods, to extract his secret.

7. Samson said . . ., If they bind me with seven green withs--Vine

tendrils, pliant twigs, or twists made of crude vegetable stalks are

used in many Eastern countries for ropes at the present day.

8. she bound him with them--probably in a sportive manner, to try

whether he was jesting or in earnest.

9. there were men lying in wait, abiding . . . in the chamber--The

Hebrew, literally rendered, is, "in the inner," or "most secret part of

the house."

10. And Delilah said--To avoid exciting suspicion, she must have

allowed some time to elapse before making this renewed attempt.

12. new ropes--It is not said of what material they were formed; but

from their being dried, it is probable they were of twigs, like the

former. The Hebrew intimates that they were twisted, and of a thick,

strong description.

13. If thou weavest the seven locks of my head--braids or tresses,

into which, like many in the East, he chose to plait his hair. Working

at the loom was a female employment; and Delilah's appears to have been

close at hand. It was of a very simple construction; the woof was

driven into the warp, not by a reed, but by a wooden spatula. The

extremity of the web was fastened to a pin or stake fixed in the wall

or ground; and while Delilah sat squatting at her loom, Samson lay

stretched on the floor, with his head reclining on her lap--a position

very common in the East.

14. went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web--that is, the

whole weaving apparatus.

Jud 16:15-20.

HE

IS

OVERCOME.

16. she pressed him daily with her words--Though disappointed and

mortified, this vile woman resolved to persevere; and conscious how

completely he was enslaved by his passion for her, she assailed him

with a succession of blandishing arts, till she at length discovered

the coveted secret.

17. if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me--His herculean

powers did not arise from his hair, but from his peculiar relation to

God as a Nazarite. His unshorn locks were a sign of his Nazaritism, and

a pledge on the part of God that his supernatural strength would be

continued.

19. she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven

locks of his head--It is uncertain, however, whether the ancient

Hebrews cut off the hair to the same extent as Orientals now. The word

employed is sometimes the same as that for shearing sheep, and

therefore the instrument might be only scissors.

20. he wist not that the Lord was departed from him--What a humiliating

and painful spectacle! Deprived of the divine influences, degraded in

his character, and yet, through the infatuation of a guilty passion,

scarcely awake to the wretchedness of his fallen condition!

Jud 16:21, 22.

THE

PHILISTINES

TOOK

HIM AND

PUT

OUT

HIS

EYES.

21. the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes--To this cruel

privation prisoners of rank and consequence have commonly been

subjected in the East. The punishment is inflicted in various ways, by

scooping out the eyeballs, by piercing the eye, or destroying the sight

sure by his being bound with fetters of brass (copper), not of leather,

like other captives.

he did grind in the prison-house--This grinding with hand-millstones

being the employment of menials, he was set to it as the deepest

degradation.

22. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again--It is probable

that he had now reflected on his folly; and becoming a sincere

penitent, renewed his Nazarite vow. "His hair grew together with his

repentance, and his strength with his hairs" [BISHOP

HALL].

Jud 16:23-25.

THEIR

FEAST TO

DAGON.

23. the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a

great sacrifice unto Dagon--It was a common practice in heathen

nations, on the return of their solemn religious festivals, to bring

forth their war prisoners from their places of confinement or slavery;

and, in heaping on them every species of indignity, they would offer

their grateful tribute to the gods by whose aid they had triumphed over

their enemies. Dagon was a sea idol, usually represented as having the

head and upper parts human, while the rest of the body resembled a

fish.

Jud 16:26-31.

HIS

DEATH.

27. there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that

beheld while Samson made sport--This building seems to have been

similar to the spacious and open amphitheaters well known among the

Romans and still found in many countries of the East. They are built

wholly of wood. The standing place for the spectators is a wooden floor

resting upon two pillars and rising on an inclined plane, so as to

enable all to have a view of the area in the center. In the middle

there are two large beams, on which the whole weight of the structure

lies, and these beams are supported by two pillars placed almost close

to each other, so that when these are unsettled or displaced, the whole

pile must tumble to the ground.

28. Samson called unto the Lord--His penitent and prayerful spirit

seems clearly to indicate that this meditated act was not that of a

vindictive suicide, and that he regarded himself as putting forth his

strength in his capacity of a public magistrate. He must be considered,

in fact, as dying for his country's cause. His death was not designed

or sought, except as it might be the inevitable consequence of his

great effort. His prayer must have been a silent ejaculation, and, from

its being revealed to the historian, approved and accepted of God.

31. Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and

took him, and brought him up, and buried him--This awful catastrophe

seems to have so completely paralyzed the Philistines, that they

neither attempted to prevent the removal of Samson's corpse, nor to

molest the Israelites for a long time after. Thus the Israelitish hero

rendered by his strength and courage signal services to his country,

and was always regarded as the greatest of its champions. But his

slavish subjection to the domination of his passions was unworthy of so

great a man and lessens our respect for his character. Yet he is ranked

among the ancient worthies who maintained a firm faith in God

(Heb 11:32).