CHAPTER 16
. 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].
. 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.
. 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!
Judges 16:21;
Judges 16:22. 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 by holding a red-hot iron
before the eyes. His security was made doubly 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].
. 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.
. 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 ().
CHAPTER 16
. 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].
. 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.
. 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!
Judges 16:21; Judges 16:22. 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 by holding a red-hot iron before the eyes. His security was made doubly 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].
. 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.
. 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 ().