Gaza at dusk seen from the dunes to the south: a large walled town on a broad mound near the sea, its plain mud-brick wall and one great gateway, palms at its foot and the sea a dim line beyond.

The Book of

Judges 16

He carried off a city’s gates, and could not carry himself away from Delilah.

31 verses≈ 8 min2 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a deliverer
6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong God
11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverersChapter 16
17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit

Samson Escapes Gaza

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.

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When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded that place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They were quiet throughout the night, saying, “Let us wait until dawn; then we will kill him.”

But Samson lay there only until midnight, when he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and both gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. Then he put them on his shoulders and took them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.

Reflect

Strong and weak

Samson could pull up a city’s gates “bar and all” and carry them up a mountain, yet he could not master his own desires. Where is your strength real? And where might you be weak without knowing it? Write both down, and bring the second to God first.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Gaza to Hebron

Gaza was the southernmost Philistine city, on the coast. Samson carried its gates “to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron”: Hebron itself is nearly 40 miles away and some 3,000 feet higher, though the hill may have been one facing toward Hebron. The Valley of Sorek, where Delilah lived, runs down from Samson’s home at Zorah toward the coast. The site of Eshtaol is uncertain.

Samson and Delilah

Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

Delilah

So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

Samson

Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.”

So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.

While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.

Delilah

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”

Samson

He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.”

Delilah

So Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”

But while the men were hidden in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like they were threads.

Question

Quick question

Three times Delilah asked, and three times Samson gave her an answer that was not the truth. Each answer came a little closer.

What did Samson tell Delilah the third time?

Delilah Learns the Secret

Delilah

“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”

Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,

Samson

Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”

My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb.

Judges 16:17

When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands.

And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.”

Judges 16:20

Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.

Reflect

He did not know

Samson woke up expecting to shake himself free as always. “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.” Sin had become so ordinary to him that he no longer noticed what it cost. What helps you stay aware of God’s presence? What dulls you to it? Write down one habit to keep and one to drop.

Samson’s Vengeance and Death

Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”

And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying:

“Our god has delivered into our hands

our enemy who destroyed our land

and multiplied our dead.”

The Philistines

And while their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson to entertain us.”

So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars.

Samson

Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”

Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.

Judges 16:28

And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other,

Evening in the hills between Zorah and Eshtaol: a family tomb cut into a low rock face among olive trees, its round stone rolled shut, a small group of men walking away down the slope.

Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people in it. So in his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.

Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.

0:26

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Remember me

Blind, shaved and mocked, Samson prayed, “O Lord GOD, please remember me.” And God heard him. Thank Him that He hears even a broken man’s last prayer. Ask Him for strength that comes from Him and not from yourself, and for a life that stays set apart to Him and faithful to the end.

You’ve experienced

Judges 16

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A verse to carry with you

Then Samson called out to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me.

Judges 16:28

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