Judges 16:1–3, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Judges 16:1–3
Samson escapes Gaza with its gate
He goes to Gaza and sees a sex worker
Samson goes to Gaza, sees a harlot, and goes in unto her. Gazites are told he has come. They surround the place, lay wait for him all night in the gate, and keep quiet, saying they will kill him in the morning. The ambush is theirs. The unnamed woman is not said to betray him, help him, or cause the plot.
At midnight he leaves with the city's gate
He lies till midnight, then rises, takes the doors of the gate, the two posts, bar and all, puts them on his shoulders, and carries them to the top of a hill before Hebron. A fortified city's closure is torn out and hauled toward Judah's high country.
The feat humiliates Gaza's security. It does not prove the night was wise, and it does not make the woman a moral of the story. She is not Delilah. Strength again extracts him from a danger he walked into by sight.
How this should shape us
Do not blame a sex worker for violence planned by other men, and do not read survival as approval. Repeated escape is not evidence that desire-driven risk is harmless.
Teach it back
Explain Judges 16:1–3 in your own words. Include its scene movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion or imitation the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Readers differ over whether the episode is comic triumph, moral decline, strategic provocation, or some mixture. Claims about the woman's agency must remain within what the sparse text says.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Judges 16:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 16:1–3
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 479-481, translation and notes on 16:1–3
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 285-340
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Supports: Antiheroic masculinity, women under threat, secrecy, coercion, power, and the distinction between divine use and approval in the Samson cycle.
Mohale, 'A dangerous and powerful woman?' complete open-access article, pp. 1-7, especially pp. 3-6 on Judges 14
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Judges 16:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Judges
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clause relationships, repeated terms, wordplays, and translation control.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Judg.xml, 16:1–3
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Judges with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, poetic, geographical, social, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Judges PDF, printed pp. 479-481, translation and notes on 16:1–3
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph preview
Before There Were Kings: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Judges
Elie Assis
Penn State University Press / Eisenbrauns, 2024
Supports: Recent whole-book literary organization, differentiated judge portraits, progressive decline, Abimelech, Samson, and the double epilogue within the limits of preview access.
Exact location: Assis, Before There Were Kings, inspected contents and exposed summaries for the relevant literary section, printed pp. 285-340
Open source ↗doctoral thesis repository record
Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges: An Inductive, Rhetorical Study
Gregory T. K. Wong
University of Edinburgh, 2005
Supports: Compositional alternatives, rhetorical relationships among prologue, central narratives, and epilogues, and the material YHWH-kingship alternative for the no-king refrain.
Exact location: Wong, Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges, University of Edinburgh repository abstract and chapter descriptions
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
A dangerous and powerful woman? A feminist reading of an old story with new cultural eyes
Makhosazana K. Mohale
Verbum et Ecclesia 43.1, a2558, 2022
Supports: Antiheroic masculinity, women under threat, secrecy, coercion, power, and the distinction between divine use and approval in the Samson cycle.
Exact location: Mohale, 'A dangerous and powerful woman?' complete open-access article, pp. 1-7, especially pp. 3-6 on Judges 14
Open source ↗