Judges 16:21

_BUT THE PHILISTINES TOOK HIM, AND PUT OUT HIS EYES, AND BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO GAZA, AND BOUND HIM WITH FETTERS OF BRASS; AND HE DID GRIND IN THE PRISON HOUSE._ The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, х_ WAYªNAQRUW_ (H5365), they dug out]. To this cruel privation prisoners of rank and consequence have commonly been subjected in the East, and the punishment is inflicted in various ways-by piercing the eye, or destroying the sight by holding a red-hot iron before the eyes, or by scooping out the eye-balls, which was the punishment inflicted on rebels and formidable enemies. AND BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO GAZA. They chose it, probably, as their strongest fortress, though the most distant from the valley of Sorek, where he was entrapped, experience having taught them that he was a dangerous foe; and the greatest precautions were needed for the confinement of so important a captive. His secu...

18-21 See the fatal effects of false security. Satan ruins men by flattering them into a good opinion of their own safety, and so bringing them to mind nothing, and fear nothing; and then he robs them of their strength and honour, and leads them captive at his will. When we sleep our spiritual enemies do not. Samson's eyes were the inlets of his sin, (ver. Judges 16:1,) and now his punishment began there. Now the Philistines blinded him, he had time to remember how his own lust had before blinded him. The best way to preserve the eyes, is, to turn them away from beholding vanity. Take warning by his fall, carefully to watch against all fleshly lusts; for all our glory is gone, and our defence departed from us, when our separation to God, as spiritual Nazarites, is profaned....

Verse Judges 16:21. _PUT OUT HIS EYES_] Thus was the lust of the eye, in looking after and gazing on strange women, punished. As the Philistines did not know that his strength might not return, they put out his eyes, that he might never be able to plan any enterprise against them. _HE DID GRIND IN THE PRISON-HOUSE._] Before the invention of _wind_ and _water-mills_, the grain was at first bruised between two stones, afterwards ground in _hand-mills_. This is practiced in China and in different parts of the East still; and _women_ and _slaves_ are the persons who are obliged to turn these mills. Such instruments were anciently used in this country, and called _QUERNS_, from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.] and [A.S.] _cweorn_ and _cwyrn_, which has the signification of a _mill_; hence [A.S.] cweorn

PUT OUT HIS EYES - Thus effectually, as they thought, preventing any future mischief on his part, while they prolonged their own triumph and revenge. (Compare Numbers 16:14; 2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:7.) They applied to the two feet fetters of brass 2 Samuel 3:34; Jeremiah 52:11, and made him “grind” - the special task of slaves and captives Exodus 11:5;...

EXPOSITION JUDGES 16:1 THEN. It should be and. There is nothing to show when the incident occurred. It may have been many years after his victory at hal-Lechi, towards the latter part of his twenty years' judgeship. GAZA, now _Ghuzzeh_,_ _one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, once a strong place, but now a large open town. It was the last town in South-West Palestine on the road from Jerusalem to Egypt (Acts 8:26, Acts 8:27). It played an important part in history in all ages—in the times, of the Pharaohs, the Seleucidae, the Maccabees, the Romans, the Khalifs, and the Crusaders. It was within the limits of the tribe of Judah ...

BUT THE PHILISTINES TOOK HIM,.... Being assured by Delilah that his strength was gone from him, of which perhaps she had made trial by binding him, and found he could not free himself from the bonds till she loosed them; or otherwise they would have been afraid to have ventured to lay hold upon him; AND PUT OUT HIS EYES; that should his strength return to him, be might not be able to see where and whom to strike, and so be incapable of doing much mischief any more; the word signifies, they "dug" or "bored them" i out; they plucked or cut out his eye balls, so that it was impossible his sight should ever be recovered; according to the Arabic version, they blinded him by putting fire to his eyes; the Jews observe, that this was done in just retaliation, measure for measure; Samson, they say k, went after his eyes; that is, by taking one harlot after another; therefore the Philistines put...

CHAPTER 16 DELILAH, AND SAMSON _ 1. In Gaza (Judges 16:1)_ 2. Delilah and her victory over him (Judges 16:4) 3. The captive of the Philistines (Judges 16:21) 4. The feast of Dagon and Samson's death (Judges 16:22) Down he goes again, and this time to Gaza, the Philistine stronghold. There he unites himself with a harlot. We are here reminded of the history of the Church. The harlot typifies that system which in Revelation is called by the same name, she who seduces to commit fornication, Babylon the great, Rome. Rome is the capital of Philistinism, ritualistic Christendom, as Gaza was the capital of the

SAMSON AND DELILAH. It was quite near his own home, in the Vale of Sorek (Grape Valley), that the Philistines, a ided by the woman who had him in thrall, ultimately got the giant under their power. A ruined site near Zorah is still called Sû rî k. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway now runs through the valley. The meaning of Delilah is unknown: perhaps it was a Philistine word, as the term for lords or tyrants (_seren,_ pl. _sarnç_) certainly was. Delilah was to receive £ 150 from each of the five for the betrayal of her lover. Judges 16:7. Instead of withes, or flexible twigs, read seven cords of fresh sinews, _i.e._ moist gut; Moore has bowstrings. Seven was first a magical and then a sacred number (_cf._ Judges 16:13)....

FETTERS OF BRASS. Hebrew "two brasses". Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), for the two fetters made of brass. App-6. GRIND. The work of women and slaves. Denotes the condition to which he was reduced. Compare Exodus 11:5.Isaiah 47:2....

_Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end_ 4 _.the valley of Sorek_ Now Wâdi eṣ-Ṣarâr, a broad valley narrowing as it rises towards the Judaean highlands; the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem ascends the lower part of it. _Soreḳ_denotes a choice kind of vine (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21), which may have given its name to the valley. A ruined site near Ṣar-a (Judges 13:2 _n._) is still called Sûrîk....