‘And so it was that when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.” And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made sport before them, and they set him between the pillars.'
Drunk with wine and success they brought Samson out, dirty and in rags, blind and fettered, with hair beginning to grow unnoticed, led by a small boy. A sight of total pathos. How they must have cheered as they made a mockery of him in the courtyard in front of the sanctuary. We do not know what sport they had with him but the great jester had become the laughingstock, a butt for humour and probably a target for rubbish and spittle. The Philistines had brought their keenness for ‘sport' from the Aegean. Now deriding Samson was their sport. Then they set him between the two main supporting pillars where all could see him, apart from those on the roof, especially the nobles in the covered section directly under the roof.
Three successive temples have been discovered at Tel Qasile which have similarities with temples found in the Aegean and in Cyprus. It is possible that the temple of Gaza was of a similar pattern. In all probability the Tyrants and officials were in a covered portion looking out on the courtyard where Samson was made a spectacle, separated from the courtyard by a series of wooden pillars set on stone bases, which supported the roof on which the large crowd was gathered for a good view. Once Samson was taken between the pillars the spectators on the roof, pressing forward to gain a good vantage-point, would make the whole structure, already overcrowded, dangerously unstable.