Judges 16:23-31

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.]