Judges 16:2

People soon found out that Samson was there, so the men of Gaza gathered together at the city gate and waited all night. They said to themselves, “When it dawns tomorrow morning, we will kill him when he tries to leave the city.”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

In Context

1One day Samson went to Gaza city in the Philistia area. He spent some time with a prostitute.

3But Samson did not stay there all night. At midnight, he got up. He went to the city gate, he took hold of its two posts, and he lifted it up out of the ground, with its connecting cross bar still attached. He put it on his shoulders and carried it many miles uphill to Hebron.

Read all of Judges 16

Cross References

Judges 15:18Then Samson was very thirsty, so he called out to Yahweh, “You have given me strength to win a great victory. So now must I die because of being thirsty, with the result that those heathen Philistines will take away my body and mutilate it?”

1 Samuel 23:26Saul and his soldiers were walking along one side of the hill/peak, and David and his men were on the other side. David and his men were hurrying to escape from Saul’s soldiers, because Saul and his soldiers were coming much closer.

Matthew 21:38But when the renters saw his son arriving, they said to each other, ‘This is the man who will inherit this vineyard! Let’s kill him and divide the property among ourselves.’

Acts 9:24During each day and night those Jews were continually watching the people passing through the city gates, in order that when they saw Saul they might kill him. However, someone told Saul what they planned to do.

2 Corinthians 11:32One time when I was in Damascus city, the governor whom King Aretas had appointed to rule part of his area, told his soldiers to guard the gates of the city so that they could seize me if I tried to leave the city.

Matthew Henry on Judges 16:2-4

Samson's Escape from Gaza. ( b. c. 1120.) 1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her. 2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. 3 And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Judges 16:2