For Teaching

Judges 16: What the Passage Says

120 claims across 31 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Judges 16 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Samson goes to Gaza, where he sees a prostitute and goes in to her; when the men of the city set an ambush at the gate, he tears the gate loose at midnight and carries it away. Later he falls in love with Delilah, and the Philistine rulers pay her to find the secret of his strength; after three false answers he tells her his hair has never been cut, and while he sleeps it is shaved off. The Philistines blind him, chain him, and set him to grind in the prison, but his hair grows back, and at a feast for their god Dagon he prays for strength and pushes down the two central pillars, killing himself and more people than he had killed in his life. His family buries him in his father's tomb, and the chapter closes his twenty years as a judge over Israel.

Claim by Claim

16:1
- Samson went to Gaza.
- Samson saw a prostitute there.
- Samson went in to her.
16:2
- The people of Gaza were told that Samson had come there.
- They surrounded the place.
- They lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.
- They kept quiet all that night.
- They said that at morning light they would kill him.
16:3
- Samson lay until midnight.
- Samson got up at midnight.
- Samson took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts.
- Samson pulled them out together with the bar.
- Samson put them on his shoulders.
- Samson carried them up to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
16:4
- Afterward Samson loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek.
- The woman's name was Delilah.
16:5
- The lords of the Philistines came up to Delilah.
- They told her to entice Samson.
- They told her to find out where his great strength lies.
- They told her to find out by what means they could overpower him.
- They said their purpose was to bind him in order to afflict him.
- They said each of them would give her eleven hundred pieces of silver.
16:6
- Delilah asked Samson to tell her where his great strength lies.
- Delilah asked Samson with what he could be bound in order to afflict him.
16:7
- Samson said that if they bound him with seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, he would become weak.
- Samson said that then he would be like any other man.
16:8
- The lords of the Philistines brought up to Delilah seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried.
- Delilah bound Samson with them.
16:9
- Men lying in wait were sitting for her in the inner room.
- Delilah said to Samson that the Philistines were upon him.
- Samson snapped the bowstrings.
- The bowstrings snapped as a strand of tow snaps when it touches fire.
- His strength was not discovered.
16:10
- Delilah said to Samson that he had mocked her.
- Delilah said Samson had told her lies.
- Delilah asked him to tell her now with what he could be bound.
16:11
- Samson said that if they bound him firmly with new ropes on which no work had been done, he would become weak.
- Samson said that then he would be like any other man.
16:12
- Delilah took new ropes.
- Delilah bound Samson with them.
- Delilah said to Samson that the Philistines were upon him.
- Men lying in wait were sitting in the inner room.
- Samson snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
16:13
- Delilah said to Samson that up to now he had mocked her.
- Delilah said Samson had told her lies.
- Delilah told Samson to tell her with what he could be bound.
- Samson said that if she wove the seven locks of his head with the web, it would hold him.
16:14
- Delilah fastened the web with the pin.
- Delilah said to Samson that the Philistines were upon him.
- Samson awoke from his sleep.
- Samson pulled out the pin of the loom together with the web.
16:15
- Delilah asked Samson how he could say he loved her when his heart was not with her.
- Delilah said Samson had mocked her three times.
- Delilah said Samson had not told her where his great strength lies.
16:16
- Delilah pressed Samson with her words every day.
- Delilah urged him.
- Samson's soul was vexed to death.
16:17
- Samson told Delilah all his heart.
- Samson said no razor had come upon his head.
- Samson said he had been a Nazirite to God from his mother's womb.
- Samson said that if he were shaved his strength would leave him.
- Samson said he would become weak.
- Samson said he would be like any other man.
16:18
- Delilah saw that Samson had told her all his heart.
- Delilah sent and called for the lords of the Philistines.
- Delilah told them to come up this once because he had told her all his heart.
- The lords of the Philistines came up to her.
- They brought the silver in their hand.
16:19
- Delilah made Samson sleep on her knees.
- Delilah called for a man.
- She had the seven locks of Samson's head shaved off.
- She began to afflict him.
- Samson's strength left him.
16:20
- Delilah said that the Philistines were upon Samson.
- Samson awoke from his sleep.
- Samson said he would go out as at other times and shake himself free.
- Samson did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
16:21
- The Philistines seized Samson.
- The Philistines gouged out his eyes.
- The Philistines brought him down to Gaza.
- The Philistines bound him with bronze fetters.
- Samson ground grain in the prison house.
16:22
- The hair of Samson's head began to grow again after he was shaved.
16:23
- The lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god.
- They gathered to rejoice.
- They said their god had delivered Samson their enemy into their hand.
16:24
- The people saw Samson.
- The people praised their god.
- They said their god had delivered their enemy into their hands.
- They called Samson the destroyer of their land.
- They said Samson had killed many of them.
16:25
- Their hearts were merry.
- They said to call for Samson so that he would entertain them.
- They called Samson out of the prison house.
- Samson entertained them.
- They stationed him between the pillars.
16:26
- Samson spoke to the young man who held him by the hand.
- Samson asked to be let go so he could feel the pillars on which the house rests.
- Samson said he wanted to lean on the pillars.
16:27
- The house was full of men and women.
- All the lords of the Philistines were there.
- About three thousand men and women were on the roof.
- Those on the roof were watching Samson entertain.
16:28
- Samson called to the LORD.
- Samson asked the Lord GOD to remember him.
- Samson asked God to strengthen him just this once.
- Samson asked to take vengeance on the Philistines in one act for his two eyes.
16:29
- Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested.
- Samson braced himself against them.
- Samson held one pillar with his right hand and the other with his left.
16:30
- Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.
- Samson pushed with all his might.
- The house fell on the lords.
- The house fell on all the people who were in it.
- The dead Samson killed at his death were more than those he killed in his life.
16:31
- Samson's brothers and all his father's household came down.
- They carried him.
- They brought him up.
- They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father.
- Samson judged Israel twenty years.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1: Gaza was one of the five main Philistine cities, on the coastal plain well inside enemy territory, a long way from Samson's home in the hill country border villages. The Philistines were a people settled along the coast who dominated this part of the land in Samson's time.
16:2: A walled town had one or two gateways, shut and barred at night. A man inside after dark could not get out, so posting men at the gate was how you sealed the city and guaranteed a prisoner by morning.
16:3: The gate doors, their two posts and the bar that locked them formed the whole locking assembly, set into the wall, carrying them off left the city standing open. Hebron lies roughly forty miles inland from Gaza and thousands of feet higher; "the hill that faces Hebron" may mean the hill overlooking the town itself or a height on the road toward it. Either way the distance is the point of the story.
16:4: The Valley of Sorek runs between the Israelite hill country and the Philistine plain, border ground where the two peoples met. The text never says whether Delilah was an Israelite or a Philistine.
16:5: "Rulers" translates a special Philistine title used in the Bible only for the heads of their five cities; they act here as a council. Silver was not yet minted as coins but weighed out in pieces (shekels), so eleven hundred pieces from each of the five is an enormous sum, elsewhere in Judges a hired priest works for ten pieces of silver a year.
16:7: Bowstrings were made from animal sinew or gut. Fresh and still undried, they are at their toughest and most elastic, so seven of them would be the strongest binding to hand. Seven recurs through this episode (seven bowstrings, seven braids) a number that carried a sense of completeness.
16:9: "The Philistines are on you" is a shout of alarm, the equivalent of "they're here, they're coming for you", not a statement that they have already seized him.
16:11: In 1611 English, "occupied" simply meant used or put to work. The phrase "new ropes that never were occupied" means rope straight off the maker's bench, not yet worn or stretched by use. The modern sense of "occupied" is not involved.
16:13: Weaving was done on an upright loom: the "web" is the cloth being formed on it, and the pin is the peg or beater that holds the threads tight. Samson's hair is to be woven in among the threads as though it were part of the fabric. The Hebrew text of this verse is unusually short: it gives Samson's instruction but not the promised result, and ancient Greek manuscripts preserve a longer form that also supplies the missing "then I will be weak, like any other man."
16:14: The pin was a peg that held the loom tight. Pulling it out with the whole loom attached shows how easily Samson broke free.
16:16: The King James "his soul was vexed unto death" is a Hebrew way of saying he was worn down until he could not stand it any longer, close to the modern phrase "sick to death of it." It describes exhaustion, not literal dying.
16:17: A Nazirite was someone under a particular vow, described in Numbers 6: no wine or anything from the grapevine, no cutting of the hair, and no going near a dead body. It was normally taken for a set period; Samson's applied from birth and for life. The uncut hair was the outward, visible sign of the vow, which is why cutting it matters.
16:18: "He hath shewed me all his heart" does not mean he was being sweet. In the King James, the heart is where a person keeps their thoughts and secrets, so this means he finally told her the truth.
16:19: The seven braids are simply how a lifetime of uncut hair was worn, plaited into seven lengths. Delilah calls in another person to do the cutting, and Samson sleeps through it, which tells you how deeply he trusted her lap.
16:20: When the King James prints LORD in capital letters, it stands for God's own name, the special name he gave to Israel.
16:21: Blinding was a standard way of making a dangerous captive harmless. Grinding grain by hand at a millstone was heavy, endless labor normally assigned to women and slaves, so the sentence describes a deliberate degradation as much as a punishment.
16:22: "Howbeit" in the King James simply means "however."
16:23: Dagon was a god worshiped widely across the region and associated with grain; the Philistines had temples to him at Gaza and elsewhere. A "great sacrifice" meant a public animal offering followed by a feast on the meat, which is why the celebration in the next verses is a drinking party.
16:25: The word rendered "entertain" can mean to perform or play, or to be laughed at. Samson may be being made to caper and show off his strength, or simply paraded as an object of mockery; the text does not settle which.
16:26: "The lad" is a boy or young servant assigned to lead the blind prisoner by the hand. Samson has to ask him for guidance, which is exactly why nobody in the building is worried about where Samson is standing.
16:27: Philistine temples excavated in this region had roofs carried on two main wooden pillars set on stone bases, spaced closely enough that one man could reach both. The flat roof served as extra standing room for spectators looking down into the hall below.
16:28: Where this rendering prints LORD or GOD in capitals, it stands for God's personal name, Yahweh, which the King James translators represented that way rather than spelling out. "Lord GOD" here combines the ordinary word for a master with that name.
16:31: A "judge" in this book is a leader raised up in a crisis to rescue and then govern the people, not primarily an official who hears legal cases. Zorah and Eshtaol are the small border towns where Samson was born and where the story of his life began, so he is buried where he started.

Read Judges 16