Judges 16:3

plucked them up Cf. Judges 16:14; the word is used of plucking uptent-pegs Isaiah 33:20, hence of setting outon a journey Genesis 35:5 and often.

The gate was probably in two leaves, turning upon pins in sockets, and secured by a bar (cf. 1 Kings 4:13; Amos 1:5 etc.) which was let into the posts on either side. Samson pulled up the whole framework of the gate, doors, posts and bar, and carried it off in one piece.

the mountain that is before Hebron Hebron is at least 40 m. from Gaza, and before, if it does mean east of(cf. Deuteronomy 32:49; 1 Kings 11:7 etc.), may also denote overlooking(Numbers 21:20; Numbers 23:28 etc.). To make the prodigious feat more credible, some take the mountainto be the low hill of el-Munṭâr, half an hour outside the walls of Gaza on the E.; for a recent description in support of this view see Gautier, Souv. de Terre-Sainte(1898), 131 f. But can el-Munṭâr be said to faceHebron? Cheyne (Encycl. Bibl., col. 4432) makes the suggestion that Hebron is a mistake for Sharuhen (Joshua 19:6), otherwise Shaaraim = the two gates(1 Samuel 17:52), which may be the Egyptian fortress Sharaḥan on the road from Egypt to Gaza; the legend, then, was told to account for the name. Similarly Stahn (Die Simson-Sage, p. 31), who supposes that there was a rock or defile near Hebron called Shaar Gaza (i.e. gate of Gazaor strong gate); the story then will have had the same origin as that which accounted for the names Ramath-lehi and En-hakkore, Judges 15:17; Judges 15:19.