Judges 16

Samson’s last chapter shows a gifted man ruined by unchecked desire and a slow trifling with his calling. Delilah’s persistence wears down his secret, his hair is shaved, and the LORD’s presence leaves him. Blind and bound, he cries out to God and, in his death, strikes the Philistines a final blow.

Judges 16:1

Samson goes to Gaza, a Philistine stronghold, and spends the night with a prostitute. The man set apart to God keeps following his appetites into enemy territory. The chapter begins with the weakness that will bring him down.

BSA: prostitute (“a harlot, a woman who fornicates”): The word names plain immorality, so Samson’s fall starts with open sin rather than a mistake.

See also: Judges 14:1-3.

Judges 16:2

The Gazites hear he is in town and seal the gate, planning to kill him at first light. They are patient and quiet, sure they have him trapped. Samson’s careless night has put him in real danger.

BSA: gate (“the entrance, a place of gathering”): The gate was where a town’s business was done, so this trap is set at the heart of the city.

Judges 16:3

At midnight Samson rises and tears out the doors, posts and bar, then carries them up toward Hebron. It is a show of God-given strength and an escape from certain death. It also shows his mercy-filled calling, which he is still wasting.

BSA: pulled them out (“removed, uprooted”): The gate is torn out of the ground, not just opened, showing how complete his strength was.

Hebrew: וַיִּסַּע (vayyissa, H5265) — “and he pulled up.” This is the word for pulling up tent pegs when a camp moves. Samson treats a city’s heavy gate like a tent peg.

Judges 16:4

Samson falls in love with Delilah, in the Valley of Sorek, which lay between Philistine and Israelite land. Unlike the earlier women, this one is named. Scripture says he loved her, but it never says she loved him.

BSA: fell in love (“to have affection for, to be deeply attracted to”): His heart is captured here, and that is where the danger lies.

Judges 16:5

The Philistine lords offer Delilah eleven hundred shekels of silver each. The sum is huge and shows how badly they fear him. Their goal is to learn the secret of his strength so they can bind and humble him.

BSA: Entice (“seduce, deceive”): They want her to win his trust and use it against him.

See also: Judges 14:15.

Judges 16:6-9

Delilah asks outright how he can be tied up. Samson gives a false answer, seven fresh bowstrings. She binds him, calls out that the Philistines have come, and he snaps the cords like burnt flax. The real source of his strength stays hidden for now. He is playing with fire.

BSA: snapped (“cords, ropes”): The bindings meant to hold him break as easily as fibers touched by fire.

Judges 16:10-12

Delilah accuses him of lying and tries again. Samson gives another false answer, new ropes, and again breaks free. Men wait hidden in her room each time, yet he does not leave. He is surrounded by the threat and will not see it.

BSA: arms (“the arm as stretched out; strength, might, power”): The arm stands for his power, which the ropes cannot hold.

Judges 16:13-14

On the third try Samson comes close to the truth by naming his braids of hair. He lets her weave them into a loom while he sleeps. He wakes and pulls out the pin, loom and all. His hair is the centre of the secret, and he is nearly there.

BSA: braids (“locks”): The seven locks hint at the Nazirite vow, which is where his strength really lies.

See also: Numbers 6:5.

Judges 16:15

Delilah turns his love into a weapon. She says that if he really loved her he would trust her. She does not mention that she has already tried to hand him over three times. The pressure now comes through his emotions.

BSA: heart (“inner being, emotions”): She demands the innermost part of him, the very thing he should guard.

Judges 16:16-17

Her daily nagging wears him down until he is sick to death, and he tells her everything. His hair was the visible sign of his Nazirite vow to God from birth. His strength was never in the hair. It came from God, and the hair marked his devotion.

BSA: Nazirite (“consecrated, dedicated”): He was set apart to God, and the hair was the outward sign of that. sick to death (“unto the point of despair, wearied of life”): His resistance gave out under constant pressure, and he gave in out of exhaustion.

Hebrew: נָזִיר (nazir, H5139) — “one set apart, dedicated.” The word carries the idea of being separated to God. It is the same word used for the uncut hair that marked the vow.

See also: Numbers 6:1-5; Judges 13:5.

Judges 16:18-19

Delilah sees that this time he has told the truth, and she sends for the lords. They arrive with the silver. She lulls him to sleep on her lap and has a man shave his seven locks. His strength leaves him, and she begins to subdue him. A trusted place becomes the place of his ruin.

BSA: subdue (“afflict, oppress”): The word means to humble, and from this point he starts to be brought low.

Judges 16:20

Samson wakes expecting to shake himself free as before. He does not know that the LORD has left him. This is the saddest line in the chapter. A man can lose God’s presence and not feel the loss until the moment he needs it.

BSA: departed (“turned aside, removed Himself”): God himself withdrew, so the loss was far greater than the loss of hair.

See also: 1 Samuel 16:14.

Judges 16:21

The Philistines seize Samson, gouge out his eyes and take him down to Gaza, where he was once so bold. He is chained in bronze and set to grind grain, a job for slaves or animals. The man who followed what his eyes saw is now blind.

BSA: shackles (“fetters, chains of restraint”): The strongman is now held by simple metal chains.

See also: Judges 14:1-3.

Judges 16:22

The text quietly adds that his hair begins to grow again. It does not say his strength has returned. It leaves a small sign that the story is not finished and that God has not forgotten him.

BSA: grow back (“to start anew or break forth”): A new beginning is already stirring in the dark prison.

Judges 16:23-24

The Philistines gather to give a great sacrifice to Dagon, crediting their god with Samson’s capture. The crowd joins in the praise. They give the victory to an idol, and that sets up the final contest, which is really about whose name will be honoured.

BSA: delivered (“given, handed over”): They claim their god handed Samson over, a boast that will be answered.

See also: 1 Samuel 5:1-4.

Judges 16:25

With their hearts merry, they call Samson out to be their entertainment, probably from drink and celebration. They set him between the pillars. In their mockery they place him exactly where God will use him.

BSA: entertain (“make us sport, laugh”): He is a public jest, brought out for laughter.

Judges 16:26-27

Samson asks the boy leading him to put his hands on the pillars so he can lean on them. The temple is packed, with the lords inside and about three thousand more on the roof. Everyone is watching a blind slave, and no one expects what comes.

BSA: lean (“rest, trust”): The word hints at resting on something for support, and his last act rests on both pillars and God.

Judges 16:28

For the first time in the chapter Samson prays. He calls on the LORD to remember him and strengthen him once more. His motive is mixed, since he wants payback for his eyes, but he turns to God, who is merciful and answers him.

BSA: remember (“think upon me, recall my situation”): He asks God to turn his attention back to him in his need. vengeful (“avenging, punitive”): His prayer is for payback, and God still grants it in his own purposes.

Hebrew: זָכְרֵנִי (zokhreni, H2142) — “remember me.” In Scripture, God remembering means he acts. It is not about recalling a forgotten fact but about turning to help.

See also: Genesis 8:1; Luke 23:42.

Judges 16:29-30

Samson braces against the two central pillars and says, Let me die with the Philistines. The temple falls on the lords and all the crowd, and he kills more in his death than in his life. His end is a hard one, yet through it God breaks the Philistine power over his people and honours the faith left in Samson.

BSA: pushed (“bowed himself, using his strength”): The word pictures him bowing forward, putting his whole weight into the pillars.

See also: Hebrews 11:32-34.

Judges 16:31

His family comes down and takes him home, burying him in his father’s tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol. The record notes that he judged Israel twenty years. For all his failures he did what God sent him to begin, and the book lets his story end in his own land.

BSA: judged (“governed, vindicated”): He served as Israel’s leader and defender, however flawed.

See also: Judges 13:5.