Judges 16:1-3·~1 min
Samson Escapes Gaza
Samson goes into Gaza, where enemies quietly prepare to kill him by morning. Before dawn he tears out the city gate and carries it away, escaping their plan with humiliating force.
O1ne day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her. 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.” 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.
Section summarySamson enters Gaza and spends the night with a prostitute while the Gazites wait to kill him at dawn. Instead, he rises at midnight and carries off the city gate, turning their trap into another display of unstoppable strength.
Role in the chapterThis opening scene keeps Samson’s pattern in view: compromised in conduct yet still overpowering Philistine opposition. It sets the chapter’s tension by showing strength still present just before that strength is lost.