But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
Awfully let us remark the punishment suited to the offence; that is, I mean, not as it came from the hand of man, but from the correction of God. it was Samson's eyes which had become the great inlet to evil, when he first saw this harlot. The desire of the eye is one of those lusts of the flesh which the apostle marks among the daring transgressions. 1 John 2:16. But oh how much more dreadful, had Samson's sins blinded the eyes of his soul! We hear no murmuring, no complaining, fall from the lips of Samson at the cruelty of the Philistines. No doubt through grace, he was led to see the divine justice in it, and to accept the punishment of his iniquity. Grace will always do this. For how unjust soever on the part of man, it was right and just on the part of God. So thought David in the case of Shimei, when he came forth in his distress to curse him. So let him curse, said David, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. 2 Samuel 16:10. But pause Reader! is there nothing here typical of Jesus? Did not the chief Priests, and Elders, when they had bound Jesus, and nailed him to the cross, mock, and insult the Lord of life and glory? Dearest Lord! how do all insults and injuries from man to man, sink comparatively to nothing, when we behold thine unparalleled sufferings; when the very Judge that condemned thee, in the moment of passing sentence, declared thee innocent. Matthew 27:24.