Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Judges 16:30 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 30. 30And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll.
Read It With
- Judges 16:23–31
Read Judges 16:23–31 together. This verse joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll. The lords' Dagon sacrifice and victory song, public spectacle, pillar placement, Samson's prayer, grasp, collapse, death total, recovery, burial, and tenure notice form the final scene; chapter 17 begins the first epilogue.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The ending records answered prayer and a blow against oppressing rulers while requiring honest attention to Samson's vengeance, suicide-like self-inclusion, and many deaths in a crowded religious building. Within that movement, joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll.
Read Judges 16:23–31 together
Why these verses belong together: The lords' Dagon sacrifice and victory song, public spectacle, pillar placement, Samson's prayer, grasp, collapse, death total, recovery, burial, and tenure notice form the final scene; chapter 17 begins the first epilogue.
Verse 23. 23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
Verse 24. 24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.
Verse 25. 25 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
Verse 26. 26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
Verse 27. 27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
Verse 28. 28 And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Verse 29. 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
Verse 30. 30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Verse 31. 31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
Follow the Context
- Philistine leaders turn Samson's capture into worship, propaganda, and public humiliation before a crowded audience.
- Samson asks for position and prays once more for strength, explicitly naming personal vengeance for his eyes.
- He pulls the supports down, dies with rulers and many others, and receives family burial and a final judgeship notice.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his…”
In plain language: joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll
Philistine rulers gather to sacrifice to Dagon and credit their god with Samson's capture. They bring Samson from prison for entertainment and place him between supporting pillars in a crowded temple. He asks the guide to position him, prays for remembered strength and one vengeance for his eyes, braces the pillars, and dies with the rulers and crowd as the building falls. His family retrieves and buries him; the narrator says he killed more in death than life and repeats his twenty-year tenure. Within that movement, this wording joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll.
Why it matters: This wording carries a material narrative, textual, historical, violence, vulnerable-person, land, leadership, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Judges 16:30 does not stand alone from 16:23–31. This death must not be used to endorse suicide attacks, terrorism, or violence in worship spaces. Its verse-specific role is: joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll.
What Remains True
Joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll. God may hear a compromised person in extremity, but narrative outcome never gives modern license for self-destructive mass violence.
How It Can Shape Life
- Because Judges 16:30 joins Samson's chosen death to the building's collapse and greater final death toll, support captives and survivors, reject spectacle and revenge, and route threats of self-harm or mass harm immediately to emergency protection rather than spiritualizing them.
Teach It Back
Explain Judges 16:30's precise role in Judges 16:23–31. Include the scene's ancient covenant setting, one material uncertainty, the affected people, and one conclusion or violent imitation the context does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Judges 16:23–31 — Samson's final prayer brings deliverance through his deathSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The scene's moral classification is genuinely disputed. Confidence is high in the narrator's claims of answered strength, deliverance impact, vengeance motive, self-included death, broad casualties, and incomplete mission; a simple hero or villain label loses evidence.
Temple architecture reconstructions can show plausibility but not prove the event. Readings differ sharply on martyrdom, suicide, warfare, divine judgment, and whether the crowd is understood as combatant, complicit elite, or mixed.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 16:23–31, 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, 16:23–31
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 16:23–31
Open source ↗