Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Judges 16

Samson and Delilah

Judges 16:¹ Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

Judges 16:² When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.”

Judges 16:³ And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

Judges 16:⁴ Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Judges 16:⁵ And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

Judges 16:⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”

Judges 16:⁷ And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:⁸ So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them.

Judges 16:⁹ Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

Judges 16:¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”

Judges 16:¹¹ So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used (Lit. with which work has never been done), then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:¹² Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

Judges 16:¹³ Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”

And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

Judges 16:¹⁴ So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

Judges 16:¹⁵ Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”

Judges 16:¹⁶ And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed (Lit. impatient to the point of) to death,

Judges 16:¹⁷ that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.

Judges 16:¹⁹ Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him (he began to be weak).

Judges 16:²⁰ And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had departed from him.

Judges 16:²¹ Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes (Lit. bored out), and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

Judges 16:²² However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

Samson Dies with the Philistines

Judges 16:²³ Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said:

“Our god has delivered into our hands
Samson our enemy!”

Judges 16:²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said:

“Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,
The destroyer of our land,
And the one who multiplied our dead.”

Judges 16:²⁵ So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.

Judges 16:²⁶ Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.”

Judges 16:²⁷ Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.

Judges 16:²⁸ Then Samson called to the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) , saying, “O Lord God (‘ăḏōnāy Yᵊhōvâ), remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God (‘ĕlōhîm), that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

• Two pillars for two eyes.
• These two pillars see what is coming next.

Judges 16:²⁹ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

Judges 16:³⁰ Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

• Pillars are called “witnesses”. Pillars tell a story when they are written on or positioned in certain ways. In this case these two witnesses support the entire Dagon temple. There will come a time in the middle of the future seven year tribulation when God’s two witnesses are killed (crumble) to destroy the dragon and his message of worship.
  
• Two pillars, one on each side of the door into the Jewish temple also tell a story: they are “named” Boaz (the kinsman redeemer and the Gentile’s husband) and Jachin (a Jewish priest according to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary).
  
  • I Kings 7:21 Then he set up the pillars by the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the right (south) and called its name Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the left (north) and called its name Boaz.
    
• Of the four faces of Jesus, two are Jesus’ identity as King of kings (the Lion) and Son of God (the Eagle).
• The other two are connected with serving men: the high priest and the kinsman redeemer.
• It seems the two pillars of the temple represents mankind’s needs.
• In the Holy of Holies two Cherubim with wings of an eagle and the body of a lion represent the King of kings and the Son of God.
• Within the Holy of Holies man and God meet once a year – placing the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat of the Ark (coffin) of (God’s) Covenant between the Cherubim.
• Above: A cross section describing Solomon’s temple and the pillar(s) on each side of the entrance. These are the pillars verifying the story of man’s redemption. The two “witnesses”.
• It takes two witnesses to confirm a truth.
  • Deuteronomy 19:15 -The Law Concerning Witnesses – by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
• The two witnesses are eyes to see – and a story to tell.

• In Samson’s case, the two pillars of Dagon’s temple supported idolatry. Samson brought down Dagon’s temple of worship, It’s two pillars, the philistine’s elite, and himself. Dagon was not able to stand up to Samson’s God. As a physical idol icon he would have had to be smashed under the debris.

• This won’t be the only time Dagon falls on his face (metaphorically) in the presence of God:
  
  • I Samuel 5:2-4 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it.

Judges 16:³¹ And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.