Judges 16:21

SAMSON’S IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH, Judges 16:21-31.

21. The Philistines took him He probably was seized at once, and did not succeed in getting out of Delilah’s chamber free.

Put out his eyes The Hebrew verb means to bore, and indicates that they thrust his eyes out by very violent means. This they did as soon as they had secured him, and thus rendered his case apparently helpless and hopeless.

Brought him down to Gaza Because it was the chief city of the nation, and far removed from the vicinity of Israelites who might seek to rescue him, and there was their great State prison. How changed from that Samson who so recently departed in scoffing triumph from that city with its gates upon his shoulder! Then he left at midnight, when the eyes of the men of Gaza were closed in slumber; now he is brought back with a deeper than midnight darkness on his eyes, while is broad daylight they laugh at his calamities.

Bound him with fetters of brass Literally, for the word is dual, with double brass, so called, perhaps, because both of his hands or feet were fettered. Fetters for both hands and feet are represented on the Assyrian monuments.

He did grind Literally, he became a grinder. He was reduced to the basely low condition of a public slave, the most miserable of all the grades of slavery. Some may wonder that the Philistines did not at once kill their great enemy, and thus put him thoroughly out of the way; but to keep him alive in such a slavery, and with his eyes put out, was worse to him than death, and a magnifying of their triumph. “In itself grinding was very suitable for prison labour, being performed by hand-mills, the uppermost of which, called the rider by the Hebrews, was made to revolve upon the other by strength of hand. Being usually performed by females, the Philistines, studious of insult, regarded it as well suited to disgrace a man, and particularly such a man as Samson had been; while by providing stones of sufficient size and weight the work might be made laborious even for him.” Kitto. See cut of mill and women grinding at Matthew 24:41.

22. Hair… began to grow again We must not suppose that Samson’s great strength lay in his hair, and yet beneath that hair was the secret of his power. Not the hair, but the Nazarite consecration which it represented, was his glory before God; and when his locks were shaven Jehovah was basely dishonoured, and at once departed from him. Judges 16:20. Nor would he return to bless the dishonoured Nazarite until the symbol of his Nazarite vow appeared again.