Judges 16:23-31 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Death of Samson. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, had been worshipped in the Maritime Plain long before their coming. They adopted the god of the district, just as many Israelites learned to worship the Baals of Canaan. One of the Amarna letter-writers was called Dagon-takala. There is still a Beit Dajan near Joppa, and another near Nâ blû s.

Judges 16:24. In the Heb. the words Our god. many of us form a rhymed five-line song, each short line ending in ç nû.

Judges 16:25. The blind giant apparently made sport by harmless exhibitions of his strength.

Judges 16:27. And all the lords. women is probably a later insertion to heighten the effect. Codex B of the LXX has 70 instead of 3000.

Judges 16:28. In the Heb., Samson prays, with grim humour, for strength to avenge himself for one of his two eyes. The Eng. trans. follows the VSS.

Judges 16:30. Lit. Let my soul die with the Philistines. The soul was not immortal; when a man died his soul died; after death he still existed, but only as a shade, not as a soul. The chapter ends with a note by D. [A discussion of the narrative is given in R. A. S. Macalister's Bible Side-Lights from the Mound of Gezer, pp. 127- 138. It is argued there that Samson performed his feats in front of the temple. The lords were in a large deep portico, the crowd on the roof of the portico. Samson was brought within the portico to rest in the shade. The pillars were wooden, and what Samson did was to push them off their stone bases, so that the lords in the portico and the crowd on its roof were killed, but not those on the roof of the temple itself, except such as might be killed in the panic. A. S. P.]

Related Commentaries of Judges 16:23

Judges 16:23-31

23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

25 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made themj sport: and they set him between the pillars.

26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.

27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.

28 And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.

30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.