City Gates



Judges 16:1-22 
1Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3 But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

At the end of chapter 15 we read that Samson judged Israel for 20 years. Chapter 16 is the beginning of the end of those 20 years. His reputation clearly precedes him wherever he goes in Philistia Why he chooses to go to the far south of Philistia to hire a prostitute is without explanation but that is what he does. The Philistines see an opportunity to capture him, but clearly, they are still rightfully afraid of him.

We still find that Samson is arrogant and self-assured. He has never met with defeat at the hands of his enemies and this time is not any different. The Philistines' fear allows him to be in control of the situation and after he has had his fill of the prostitute, he leaves the area. Somehow, he discovers the plot to capture him and exacts his revenge simply; he removes the gates to the city.

Ancient doors were fitted with a post that was rounded at the bottom so that the post and the door would rotate on a stone below. This stone, set in the foundation of the gate, had a matching rounded depression on its surface.
Lawrenz, J. C. (1997). Judges, Ruth (pp. 165–166). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

In doing so, he has removed their source of protection for a city without gates was subject to any marauder or army that came along. How he did this without the destruction being revealed to the men of the city is a mystery. His strength remains and so does his penchant for revenge. You must admit this decision to remove the city gates is clever. But in this story, we also find that Samson still makes unwise choices. He obviously sees himself as invincible and that is a dangerous attitude. That is the attitude that will lead Samson to his final bad decision; getting involved with Delilah.

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