Judges 16:1

Samson and Delilah

1 Now Samson went to ^aGaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they ^asurrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.”

3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

5 And the ^alords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ^b“Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Judges 16:1

Then went Samson to Gaza , and saw there a harlot - The Chaldee, as in the former case, renders the clause thus: Samson saw there a woman, an inn-keeper. Perhaps the word zonah is to be taken here in its double sense; one who keeps a house for the entertainment of travelers, and who also prostitutes her person. Gaza was situated near the Mediterranean Sea, and was one of the most southern cities of Palestine. It has been supposed by some to have derived its name from the treasures deposited there by Cambyses, king of the Persians; because they say Gaza, in Persian, signifies treasure; so Pomponius Mela and others. But it is more likely to be a Hebrew word, and that this city derived its name, azzah , from azaz , to be strong, it being a strong or well fortified place. The Hebrew ain in this word is, by the Septuagint, the Arabic, and the Vulgate, rendered G; hence instead of azzah , with a strong guttural breathing, we have Gaza, a name by which this town could not be recognized by an ancient Hebrew.

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Judges 16:1:**

Joshua 2:1

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Judges 16:2 >>

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