Judges 16 explained: Samson, Delilah and the Fallen Temple

Carrying off Gaza's gates (vv. 1-3)

Samson spends the night with a prostitute in Gaza, a major Philistine city, while men wait at the city gate to kill him at dawn. A city's gates were its main defense, so tearing them out and hauling them up a hill facing Hebron, toward Israelite land, was a public humiliation of the whole city.

Delilah's bargain (vv. 4-14)

The Philistine rulers each offer Delilah a fortune in silver to learn the secret of Samson's strength, and the text never says whether she was a Philistine or an Israelite. Three times he gives her a false answer and she tests it with men hidden nearby, and his last answer, about weaving his hair into her loom, comes uncomfortably close to the truth.

The secret told (vv. 15-20)

Worn down by her daily pleading, Samson reveals he has been a Nazirite from birth, someone set apart to God by a vow that included never cutting his hair. Once it is shaved his strength leaves, and the text quietly adds that he did not know the LORD had left him; many readers take the hair as the sign of his bond with God rather than a magic source of power.

Blinded and enslaved (vv. 21-22)

Blinding was a common way to make a dangerous captive harmless, and grinding grain by hand was the work of slaves, so Samson is brought as low as a man could be. The brief note that his hair began to grow back hints that his story is not yet over.

Dagon's celebration (vv. 23-27)

The Philistines hold a great festival to thank their god Dagon for handing them their enemy, and bring Samson out to be mocked. The building is packed with the rulers and many people, with about three thousand more watching from the roof.

Samson's last act (vv. 28-31)

Samson prays for strength once more, openly to take revenge for his eyes, and pushes down the central pillars, killing himself along with the crowd. The story tells this bluntly without praising or condemning it, though a later New Testament letter lists Samson among people of faith, and some Christians have read his victory through death as a faint picture of Jesus.

Key verse: Judges 16:20

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Samson's final act should be seen mainly as a hero's faithful self-sacrifice or as the tragic end of a self-driven man whose story serves chiefly as a warning.

Something to think about

Why do you think people sometimes keep confiding in someone even when part of them senses it could cost them?