Judges · 31 verses

Judges 16

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

Samson’s last entertainment is arranged as a celebration of his capture: blinded, shackled, and set to grind grain, he is brought out before three thousand spectators—and asks to die with the people watching him.

The gate, the mountain, and the woman in Sorekvv. 1–3

In Gaza, Samson spends the night with a prostitute while the Gazites quietly wait at the gate to kill him at dawn. He leaves at midnight by pulling out the city gate and both gateposts, bar and all, carrying the whole arrangement to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron. It is an impressively portable exit.

Delilah’s experimentsvv. 4–22

Samson falls in love with Delilah in the Valley of Sorek, and the lords of the Philistines offer her eleven hundred shekels of silver each to discover his strength. Three times Samson gives her an answer, and three times she tests it with Philistines hidden in her room: bowstrings, new ropes, and his braids woven into a loom. Each time he breaks free; each time she tells him he has mocked her. At last, pressed daily until he is sick to death, he tells her about his uncut hair and his Nazirite vow. Delilah has his seven braids shaved while he sleeps, and his strength leaves him. The Philistines seize him, gouge out his eyes, take him to Gaza, and set him to grinding grain in prison. His hair, meanwhile, begins to grow back—a quiet little development in the margins of a very noisy plot.

The temple performancevv. 23–31

The lords of the Philistines gather for a sacrifice to Dagon and celebrate Samson’s delivery into their hands. Then, with hearts merry, they call him from prison to entertain them and station him between the temple pillars, while about three thousand men and women watch from the roof. Samson asks the LORD to remember him and strengthen him once more for his two eyes. With one hand on each central pillar, he says, “Let me die with the Philistines,” and pushes. The temple falls on the lords and everyone inside; in his death Samson kills more than during his life. His brothers and his father’s family carry him down and bury him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Judg 16:1One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.
Judg 16:2When 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.”
Judg 16:3But 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.
Judg 16:4Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Judg 16:5The 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.”
Judg 16:6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
Judg 16:7 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.”
Judg 16:8So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.
Judg 16:9While 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.
Judg 16:10Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me! Now please tell me how you can be tied up.”
Judg 16:11He replied, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become as weak as any other man.”
Judg 16:12So 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.
Judg 16:13Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me all along! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the web of a loom and tighten it with a pin, I will become as weak as any other man.”
Judg 16:14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven braids of his hair and wove them into the web. Then she tightened it with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin with the loom and the web.
Judg 16:15“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!”
Judg 16:16Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,
Judg 16:17Samson 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.”
Judg 16:18When 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.
Judg 16:19And 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.
Judg 16:20Then 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.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
Judg 16:21Then 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.
Judg 16:22However, the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved.
Judg 16:23Now 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.”
Judg 16:24And 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.”
Judg 16:25And 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.
Judg 16:26 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.”
Judg 16:27Now 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.
Judg 16:28Then Samson called out to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more, so that with one vengeful blow I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”
Judg 16:29And 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,
Judg 16:30 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.
Judg 16:31Then 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.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 230 passages were voted onto 27 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

20 Numbers 14:42–43Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you.
20 1 Samuel 16:14Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a spirit of distress from the LORD began to torment him.
28 Jeremiah 15:15You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.
28 Lamentations 3:31–32For the Lord will not cast us off forever.
17 Micah 7:5Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.
22 Psalms 107:13–14Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
22 Leviticus 26:44Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
22 Psalms 106:44–45Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.
28 Psalms 143:12And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.
28 Revelation 6:10And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”
28 Psalms 91:15When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.
2 Psalms 118:10–12All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
15 Judges 14:16Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
17 Proverbs 12:23A shrewd man keeps his knowledge to himself, but a foolish heart proclaims its folly.
17 Judges 13:5For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall touch his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
21 Proverbs 2:19None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

Onward

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