Judges 16:23-31

The Voice

²³ One day, the rulers of the Philistines gathered for a festival of sacrifice to their god Dagon to celebrate Dagon giving their great enemy, Samson, into their control. ²⁴ Whenever the Philistines saw Samson trudging in the mill, it made them joyful.

²⁵ And during the festival when they were feeling merry, they called for Samson.

So Samson was led out of the prison and brought before all the people gathered for the festival. They displayed him between the pillars for their entertainment, ²⁶ and Samson spoke to the boy leading him.

²⁷ For this occasion the building was full of people—men and women and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. About 3,000 people stood on the roof watching as Samson leaned against the pillars. The crowd watched and waited with anticipation.

²⁹ He took hold of the two main pillars of the building, the ones supporting the roof, and he leaned hard against them, his right hand on one, his left hand on the other.

He pushed with all his might. The pillars gave; the building collapsed on the rulers and all the Philistine people who were in it. The number of enemies that he killed at his death was greater than the number of Philistines he had killed during the rest of his life.

³¹ Then his brothers and the rest of his family came down from the hill country and took his body back up to be buried between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial ground of his father Manoah. Samson had been judge of Israel for 20 years.