Jude 16

16:1-31 There is nothing of judgeship in this last chapter of Samson’s checkered history. Samson effectively abandoned his calling and was eventually stripped of his gifting as well. Only in his final encounter, when he again turned to the Lord in prayer, did any of his heroic stature revive.

16:2-3 City gates of the period were locked during the night to prevent passage in or out, and the men of the city, having seen the gates locked, probably slept (kept quiet) in one of the gate houses, thinking that they could resume their vigil in the morning.

16:3 Samson had to pick up the entire six- to twelve-foot-wide gate system and take it to the hills across from Hebron, a town about forty miles distant. Samson humiliated the Philistines but did nothing to defeat them.

16:4-22 Samson’s dissipation and defeat by Delilah the temptress has the universal appeal of great tragedy.

16:5 The Philistine rulers knew that direct confrontation with Samson would not succeed, so they resorted to subterfuge. The generous offer by the rulers (literally lords) of the five Philistine cities (3:3) shows how seriously the Philistines took this matter.

16:6 The desire for silver rather than self-preservation (cp. 14:15) seems to have motivated Delilah; she apparently did not reciprocate Samson’s love.

16:7 Bowstrings were commonly made of dried animal tendons or gut. Seven was a symbolic number, perhaps connected with the Philistines’ sense of magical power. Samson seems more at home in a Philistine cultural setting than in keeping his Israelite vows that bound him as a Nazirite.

16:11 Brand-new ropes had already been tried (15:13-14).

16:13-14 Possibly Samson’s hair was woven into the fabric as weft on the loom’s warp, which was then tightened as in normal weaving.

16:16 Samson should have recognized his danger (cp. 14:17), but spiritual blindness had led to mental exhaustion.

16:17-19 Samson’s hair was the sign of his vow to the Lord; when his hair was shorn, his vow would be broken. The seven braided locks were only a sign; the Lord’s presence was the reality behind his strength.

16:18 After being fooled three times, the rulers had given up and left. Now, however, they returned with the money in their hands—they knew that this was the moment they had dreamed of.

16:20 Like the remorseful but presumptuous earlier Israelites (Num 14:40-45), Samson didn’t realize that his hair was gone and that the divine presence had departed (cp. Hos 7:9).

16:22 There was no certainty that the Lord would revive Samson’s strength when his hair began to grow back; there was only the hope that the Lord’s earlier promise—that he would begin to rescue Israel through this strange and now broken hero—still stood.

16:23-24 In their boundless rejoicing, the Philistines gave all the credit to their god, Dagon. In the pagan mind, the relative strength of nations reflected the power of their gods.

16:28-30 Though only for personal revenge, Samson furthered God’s purpose of rescuing his people.