And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.
Samson ... arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city. A ruinous pile of masonary 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 ran night and day from the time of his flight from Gaze, 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 road of thick sand, was a feat which none but a Samson could have accomplished (Van de Velde). The gates of cities, as well as of houses and temples, are generally very low and strait, or narrow, as they appear to have been also in the most ancient times (Psalms 24:7; Luke 13:24). 'On entering Tiberias from the south I could not get through the gate of the city except by stooping close to the mane of my horse. If the gates of Gaza were like those of Tiberias, the act of Samson, who carried them a considerable distance, would still be regarded as an extraordinary feat but not beyond the limits of credibility' (Bovet, 'Voyage en Terre Saints,' p.
285).