The big picture
Judges 16 places Samson’s greatest visible strength beside his deepest vulnerability. At Gaza he escapes an ambush by carrying away the city gate, a public humiliation of Philistine security. Later he loves Delilah, who is paid by Philistine rulers to discover the source of his strength. Samson repeatedly gives false answers, and Delilah repeatedly tests them in front of hidden enemies. He eventually tells her all his heart and connects his uncut hair with consecration from the womb. Once he is shaved, the decisive loss is that the LORD departs. Samson is blinded, bound, and made to grind in prison. At a feast to Dagon, the Philistines display him as proof of their god’s victory. Samson prays once more for strength, pulls down the supporting pillars, and dies with his captors.
Central truth
Judges 14:1–16:3 presents Samson's extraordinary strength inside a chain of desire, riddles, revenge, Philistine pressure, and personal conflict that the LORD nevertheless uses against Israel's oppressors. Judges 16:4–31 strips Samson of the strength he treats carelessly, shows the LORD departing before Samson recognizes his loss, and ends with a final prayer in which his death brings down Dagon's celebration and more Philistine rulers than he killed before.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Judges 16:1: “Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.”
Slow down at the turning point
Judges 16:16: “And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;”
Keep this word trail visible
Samson, Philistines, house, lords, bound, Delilah
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Judges 14:1–16:3
Judges 14:1-4
She pleaseth me well
Start with the phrase that sums up Samson: "she pleaseth me well", literally she is right in my eyes. Point ahead to 17:6 and 21:25, "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Read the parents' objection and then 14:4. Explain carefully that the LORD's purpose works through Samson's choices without approving them; the same pattern appears with Joseph's brothers in Genesis 50:20. Teach this first because the whole unit depends on holding providence and moral responsibility together.
Judges 14:5-9
A lion and secret honey
Read the lion encounter: the Spirit of the LORD comes mightily, and Samson tears it with bare hands. Then, later, he turns aside to the carcass, finds bees and honey, eats and shares it. Explain the Nazirite rule against contact with the dead (Numbers 6:6), and point out that the vineyards of Timnath are an odd place for a man under a vow to avoid the vine. He tells no one. Teach this before the riddle because secrecy about compromise is the hinge of the next scene.
Judges 14:10-20
The riddle and the threat
Explain the wedding feast, seven days of celebration. Samson sets a riddle about the lion and the honey, with thirty garments as stakes. The companions cannot solve it and threaten to burn his wife's family. Read 14:16-17, her tears and his giving way. Then 14:18, his bitter proverb about ploughing with his heifer. The Spirit comes on him and he kills thirty men at Ashkelon to pay the debt. Note the difficult combination: the Spirit empowers, and Samson's anger drives. Then his wife is given to another.
Judges 15:1-8
Foxes and fire
Read the return at wheat harvest. The father has given her away and offers her younger sister. Samson's response: three hundred foxes, firebrands, and the Philistine harvest burned. Explain the scale: grain, vineyards, olives, a whole year's food. The Philistines burn the woman and her father, exactly the threat of 14:15. Samson slaughters them and retreats to Etam. Teach this step as an escalation chain on the board, every act answered with a worse one.
Judges 15:9-20
Bound by Judah, freed by the Spirit
Show Judah's response: three thousand men come to bind their own deliverer and hand him over, saying "Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?" Explain the shame of it. Then at Lehi the Spirit comes mightily, the cords fall away, and he kills a thousand with a fresh jawbone. Read his boast, then his thirst and prayer, and the spring of 15:19. Teach the prayer as the turning point of the unit: for once Samson calls on the LORD and confesses the deliverance is his.
Judges 16:1-3
The gates of Gaza
End with Gaza. Read 16:1 plainly and briefly; the text does not dwell on it. The city waits for dawn; Samson rises at midnight and carries the whole gate to a hill facing Hebron, a long climb inland from the coast. Explain that the gate was the city's security. Teach this last as a picture of Samson: unequalled strength and unguarded desire. Tell the class that the next unit begins with a woman in the valley of Sorek, and what began at Timnath will end there.
Judges 16:4–31
Judges 16:4-5
Delilah and the silver
Begin with the valley of Sorek and the first time the Book of Judges says Samson "loved" a woman. The Philistine lords offer Delilah eleven hundred pieces of silver each, a huge sum. Point out that her nationality is not stated, and the text does not say she loved him. Teach this first so the class sees that the threat is plain from the start; Samson is the only one who does not see it.
Judges 16:6-14
Three lies and three tests
Read the three rounds aloud. Each time Delilah asks, Samson lies, the Philistines wait, and he breaks free. Explain the withs, fresh bowstrings or cords, and the loom: she weaves his hair into the web on her loom. Point to the pattern: each answer edges closer to his hair. Ask the class why he stays. Teach this step slowly because it shows how a person plays with a danger he believes cannot touch him.
Judges 16:15-19
All his heart
Read 16:15-17. Delilah turns to love: "How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?" She presses him daily until he is worn down "unto death", and he tells all his heart. Explain that the Nazirite vow was the visible sign of his dedication to the LORD; giving it away is giving away his calling. Then 16:18-19: the lords come with money, he sleeps on her knees, his hair is cut, and "his strength went from him." Teach it as the climax of his carelessness.
Judges 16:20-22
He wist not
Read 16:20 slowly. Explain "wist" as knew. This is the most sobering verse in Samson's life: the LORD has departed, and he does not know. Then 16:21, read plainly and briefly: blinded, taken to Gaza, bound in bronze, grinding grain, work done by slaves or animals. The eyes that chose by what pleased them are gone. Then 16:22, a quiet line of hope: his hair begins to grow again. Teach the hope as the text gives it, small and unexplained.
Judges 16:23-27
A feast for Dagon
Read the Philistine celebration. Explain that Dagon was a major god of the Philistines. Their praise credits Dagon with Samson's capture, so the issue is now who is God. Read 16:25-27: they bring him out to entertain them, set him between the pillars, and three thousand watch from the roof. Teach this step so the class sees that the LORD's honour, not Samson's, is now at stake.
Judges 16:28-31
Remember me
Read the prayer of 16:28 in full. Point out the two things it contains: humble dependence and a stated desire for revenge. Then 16:29-30: the pillars, "Let me die with the Philistines", and the house falling. Read the measure of 16:30 and the burial in 16:31. Teach this last as both a triumph and a tragedy: the LORD answers, Dagon's feast is ended, and Israel's judge dies a blind prisoner. Close by pointing to Hebrews 11:32-34, where weakness turned to strength.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Judges 14:1–16:3
"Verse 4 means Samson was right to marry the Philistine woman."
Verse 4 says the LORD "sought an occasion against the Philistines" through the situation. It does not say Samson was obeying. His own reason is "she pleaseth me well" (14:3), and his parents' objection reflects the Law (Deuteronomy 7:3). God can bring good out of a person's wrong choice, as with Joseph in Genesis 50:20, without making the choice right.
"When the Spirit came on Samson, everything he did was holy."
The Spirit came "mightily upon him" for the lion (14:6), at Ashkelon (14:19) and at Lehi (15:14). But the same chapters show anger (14:19), revenge (15:7) and desire (16:1). The Spirit's empowering for deliverance is not the same as approval of every motive. Teach learners to distinguish gifts from character.
"Samson's wife betrayed him."
She was threatened with being burned with her father's household (14:15), and the threat was later carried out (15:6). Her pleading came from fear. Samson's riddle and the companions' threats put her in an impossible place. The Book of Judges shows her as a victim in a feud between men, not mainly as a schemer.
"Samson was just a hero with a few faults."
The text shows serious breaches of his vow (14:8-9, his feast in 14:10), revenge (15:7-8), and the visit to Gaza (16:1). It also shows the LORD using him and Samson calling on the LORD (15:18). Hebrews 11:32 includes him among the faithful. Do not make him either a model or a write-off; let the Book of Judges keep both in view.
Judges 16:4–31
"Samson lost his strength because his hair was cut."
Verse 19 does say his strength went when the locks were shaved, but verse 20 gives the deeper cause: "the LORD was departed from him". The hair was the sign of his Nazirite dedication to God (16:17). Breaking the vow fully was the final act of a long carelessness. The strength was always the Spirit's (14:6, 15:14), never the hair's.
"Delilah was the real villain and Samson was only a victim."
Delilah takes the silver and betrays him (16:5, 16:18). But Samson returned to her after three clear betrayals and finally told her what he had vowed to guard (16:17). The Book of Judges shows both as responsible. Do not let the class reduce the account to blaming a woman.
"Samson's final act was suicide, so it was sin."
Samson asks to die with the Philistines (16:30), and the text reports it as the LORD answering his prayer (16:28) and as his greatest victory over Israel's oppressors. Christian traditions think carefully about this, and the passage is not a pattern for anyone today. Handle it with care, especially if anyone in the room has been touched by suicide; point them to help and to the LORD who remembers.
"God only answers prayers with pure motives."
Samson's prayer names revenge for his two eyes (16:28), and the LORD still strengthens him. This does not make revenge good; Romans 12:19 says vengeance belongs to God. It shows that God answers even mixed prayers to bring about his purposes. Encourage learners to pray honestly while asking God to purify their motives.
Learning objectives
- Explain the tension between Samson's desire for the Timnite woman and 14:4.
- Trace the lion and honey episode into the wedding riddle.
- Identify how coercion of Samson's wife drives the riddle's outcome.
- Follow the escalating cycle from burned crops to jawbone victory.
- Explain the name En-hakkore from Samson's cry for water.
- Describe how the Gaza gate episode extends the pattern of strength without resolving Samson's vulnerabilities.
- Trace Delilah's repeated attempts to discover Samson's strength.
- Identify the point at which Samson tells her all his heart.
- Explain what the text means by the LORD departing from Samson.
- Describe the humiliation imposed after his capture.
- Explain why the regrowth of Samson's hair is a sign, not a magic mechanism.
- Evaluate Samson's final prayer using its actual wording and outcome.
Teacher preparation
- Read Exodus 34:12–16 and Deuteronomy 7:3–4 so the parents' objection to a Philistine marriage is heard against covenant concerns.
- Prepare to distinguish 14:4, the LORD seeking an occasion against Philistines, from an endorsement of every desire or action Samson expresses.
- Mark where Samson withholds information from his parents about the lion, honey, and source of the riddle.
- Prepare simple explanations for 'companions,' 'foxes' or jackals in common discussion, and the KJV place-name En-hakkore without chasing side debates.
- Map Timnah, Ashkelon, Etam, Lehi, and Gaza so the rapid geographic movement does not become a blur of names.
- Read Numbers 6 and Judges 13 again so Samson's uncut hair remains connected to consecration rather than magical power.
- Mark the four stages of Delilah's questioning: green withs, new ropes, woven locks, then the revealed razor condition.
- Prepare to explain the Philistine lords' payment offer and Dagon feast without turning the lesson into a speculative reconstruction of Philistine religion.
- Decide how directly to describe blinding and death for the learners in the room.
- Count the repeated language of love, vexing, telling, knowing, and strength so the emotional pressure and deception are visible in the text.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Judges 14:4 explicitly says Samson's parents did not know the matter was of the LORD, who sought an occasion against the Philistines; 14:6 and 14:19 explicitly credit the Spirit of the LORD in Samson's feats. Judges 16:17 says Samson tells Delilah all his heart and connects the razor prohibition to being a Nazirite from his mother's womb; 16:20 says he does not know the LORD has departed from him.
Scripture-supported
The riddle in 14:14 grows directly from the lion and honey episode in 14:5–9, while 14:15–17 shows the Philistine companions threatening Samson's wife until she obtains the answer. Verses 21–25 explicitly describe capture, blinding, imprisonment, grinding, and public entertainment at a feast where Philistines credit Dagon with delivering Samson into their hands.
Strong inference
The repeated retaliation in 14:19–15:8 is best read as escalation rather than a clean sequence of judicial sentences. Samson says what he is doing, but the text does not label every retaliatory step righteous. Verse 22, the hair beginning to grow again, strongly signals that Samson's consecration and possibility of renewed strength are not finished, but verse 28 confirms that renewed power still depends on God hearing his prayer.
Possible or traditional reading
The animals in 15:4 are traditionally rendered 'foxes' in the KJV; some discussions prefer jackals. The species question does not change the passage's point that Samson uses paired animals and firebrands to burn Philistine crops. Some readings present Samson's final act as pure martyrdom; others stress the personal revenge named in 16:28. Keep both the explicit revenge request and the larger conflict with Philistine rulers in view.
Limit
The passage does not explain every moral dimension of Samson's visit to the woman at Gaza in 16:1, and it does not say his strength makes him spiritually secure. Chapter 16 will expose the opposite. The passage does not say hair itself contains supernatural force, nor does it give a blanket endorsement of suicidal violence. Samson's unique calling and the judicial conflict of Judges frame this event.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What do Samson's parents object to in 14:3, and what does verse 4 add for the reader?
What a good answer contains
His parents ask "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" (14:3). Samson answers "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well". Verse 4 then tells the reader what the parents "knew not": "that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines". A good answer holds both: Samson's choice is driven by what pleases his eyes, and the LORD is working through it. A weak answer lets verse 4 turn Samson's desire into obedience.
Show teacher guidance
Keep both layers: they object to a Philistine wife, and verse 4 says the LORD is seeking an occasion against Philistines. Do not make one erase the other.
2. How does a private lion encounter become public wedding trouble?
What a good answer contains
On the way to Timnath, "a young lion roared against him", and the Spirit came mightily on him so he tore it apart, "but he told not his father or his mother" (14:5-6). Later he takes honey from the carcass, gives some to his parents and again tells no one (14:8-9). The secret becomes his wedding riddle, "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness" (14:14). The companions threaten his wife, she presses him, he tells her, she tells them, and he realises it (14:15-18). A good answer keeps the chain. A weak answer forgets that touching a carcass was itself a breach of his Nazirite separation.
Show teacher guidance
Trace lion, honey, concealed information, riddle, pressure on the wife, disclosed answer, and Samson's discovery that the companions know it.
3. What threat is used against Samson's wife to force the riddle's answer?
What a good answer contains
On the seventh day the companions say to his wife, "Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire" (14:15). A good answer sees that her tears in 14:16-17 come from fear for her life and her family, not simply from manipulation. It should also note that the threat is carried out in 15:6. A weak answer blames the wife alone, missing that she is caught between her husband and men who will kill her.
Show teacher guidance
Use 14:15. The threat of burning her and her father's house explains the pressure behind her repeated appeal.
4. How does retaliation escalate after Samson learns his wife has been given away?
What a good answer contains
Samson finds his wife given to another, and says "Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure" (15:3). He burns their grain with three hundred foxes (15:4-5). The Philistines burn "her and her father with fire" (15:6). Samson answers "yet will I be avenged of you" and strikes them "hip and thigh with a great slaughter" (15:7-8). A good answer traces each blow answered by a worse one, and notices "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them" (15:11). A weak answer misses that the woman dies in the middle of the feud.
Show teacher guidance
Follow 15:1–8: crop burning, Philistine retaliation against the woman and father, then Samson's further attack.
5. What does Samson finally admit after killing a thousand men with the jawbone?
What a good answer contains
After the jawbone, "he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?" (15:18). God splits the hollow place and water comes, and he calls the spring En-hakkore, the spring of the one who called (15:19). A good answer notes this is Samson's first recorded prayer, and that he credits the LORD. A weak answer misses that he had boasted of his own deed in 15:16 just before.
Show teacher guidance
Use 15:18. He becomes sore athirst and cries to the LORD, acknowledging that God has given the great deliverance.
6. What is the effect of ending this unit with Samson carrying Gaza's gates away?
What a good answer contains
Samson goes to Gaza, sees a harlot and goes in to her (16:1). The Gazites wait at the gate to kill him at dawn (16:2), but at midnight he takes "the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts", "bar and all", and carries them "to the top of an hill that is before Hebron" (16:3). A good answer sees two things at once: astonishing strength, and the same pattern of desire that started at Timnath. Gaza will be where he is finally taken (16:21). A weak answer celebrates the feat and misses the warning.
Show teacher guidance
Use 16:1–3. His physical dominance remains astonishing, but the episode leaves his deeper pattern of risky desire unresolved.
7. What pattern does Samson establish during Delilah's first three tests?
What a good answer contains
Each time Delilah asks, Samson gives a false answer, she tests it, and he breaks free: "seven green withs" (16:7-9), "new ropes that never were occupied" (16:11-12), and then "If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web" (16:13-14). Each time she cries "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." A good answer notices that the third answer moves to his hair, closer to the truth, and that Samson keeps returning to a woman who has three times handed him over. A weak answer treats the scenes as a game and misses the danger growing each round.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 16:7–14. He gives false answers that move progressively closer to his hair, and each answer is immediately tested.
8. What changes in verse 17?
What a good answer contains
Delilah presses him daily "so that his soul was vexed unto death" (16:16), and then "he told her all his heart" (16:17): "There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb". A good answer sees that this is no longer a trick but a confession of his dedication, the one thing that was his to guard. Delilah knows it too: "he hath shewed me all his heart" (16:18). A weak answer says only that he told the secret, missing that he gives away his vow.
Show teacher guidance
The text says he tells her all his heart and explains his Nazirite status and uncut hair. This is more than another trick answer.
9. What is the most frightening sentence in verse 20?
What a good answer contains
Verse 20 says "he wist not that the LORD was departed from him". Samson wakes and says "I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself". He expects his strength to be there because it always has been. A good answer centres on the gap between his assumption and the reality, and sees that the departure of the LORD, not the scissors, is what the verse names. A weak answer focuses on the haircut as the loss.
Show teacher guidance
Focus on Samson not knowing that the LORD had departed from him. His assumption that he can go out as before is part of the warning.
10. How do the Philistines interpret Samson's capture at their feast?
What a good answer contains
They gather "to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god", saying "Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand" (16:23), and the people praise their god because he has delivered "the destroyer of our country" (16:24). Then they call Samson to "make us sport" (16:25). A good answer sees that the capture has become a contest between Dagon and the LORD in the Philistines' eyes. Compare 1 Samuel 5, where Dagon falls before the ark. A weak answer reads the feast as only a party.
Show teacher guidance
Use 16:23–24. They praise Dagon as the god who delivered their enemy, turning Samson into a trophy in a religious celebration.
11. What does Samson ask for in his final prayer?
What a good answer contains
He prays "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" (16:28). A good answer sees both sides: a humble request to be remembered and strengthened by the LORD, and a motive stated as personal revenge. The text does not cleanse the motive, and still God answers. A weak answer either makes the prayer pure or dismisses it, rather than letting both stand as the Book of Judges does.
Show teacher guidance
Use 16:28. He asks the Lord GOD to remember and strengthen him once more, and he also names revenge for his two eyes.
12. How does the Book of Judges measure the result of Samson's final act?
What a good answer contains
Verse 30 measures it: "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." He had said "Let me die with the Philistines." Then his family carries him home and buries him "between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father", and the book adds "he judged Israel twenty years" (16:31). A good answer notices the return to the place where the Spirit first moved him (13:25), and that his greatest victory is his death. A weak answer celebrates the number without noticing the sorrow.
Show teacher guidance
Use 16:30. The dead at his death are more than those he killed in his life, and his family later buries him between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask how strength in one area can coexist with poor judgment in another. Build the answer from Samson's victories and his repeated choices, not from personal confession.
Relationships and community
Trace how threats, secrecy, wounded honor, and revenge spread harm across families and communities in chapters 14–15.
Providence is not permission
Put 14:4 beside Samson's conduct and ask why saying the LORD uses an event is not the same as saying every human action within it is approved.
Gift versus giver
Contrast hair, muscles, and the sentence 'the LORD was departed from him.' Ask which detail prevents a magical reading of Samson's strength.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Judges 14:1–16:3
45 minutes
Right in his eyes
Read 14:1-4. Take question one and confusion one. Write "she pleaseth me well" on the board.
Lion, honey, riddle
Read 14:5-20. Take questions two and three, and confusion three.
Escalation
Read 15:1-8 and draw the escalation chain on the board. Take question four.
Lehi and the spring
Read 15:9-20. Take question five and confusion two.
Gaza and close
Read 16:1-3 and take question six. Read the key verse together, hand out the sheet and pray.
90 minutes
Opening
Ask the group what it means to do what is right in your own eyes. Collect answers without comment.
Providence and choice
Read 14:1-4 and Genesis 50:20. Take question one and confusion one.
The vow broken quietly
Read 14:5-9 with Numbers 6:1-6. Take question two. Ask what Samson keeps secret and why.
The riddle
Read 14:10-20. Take question three and confusion three.
Fire for fire
Read 15:1-8. Draw the escalation chain and take question four.
The prayer at Lehi
Read 15:9-20. Take question five and confusion two. Read 15:16 and 15:18 side by side.
The gates
Read 16:1-3. Take question six and confusion four with Hebrews 11:32.
Response and handout
Choose one application. Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line and pray.
Judges 16:4–31
45 minutes
Sorek
Read 16:4-5 and ask what Samson does not know that the reader knows.
Three tests
Read 16:6-14. Take question one. Draw three steps moving toward the hair.
All his heart
Read 16:15-22. Take questions two and three, then confusion one.
Dagon and the pillars
Read 16:23-31. Take questions four, five and six. Deal with confusion four.
Close
Read the key verse together, hand out the sheet and pray, asking the LORD to remember each person in the room.
90 minutes
Opening
Ask what it looks like for a person to grow careless with something precious. Keep the examples general.
Silver and Sorek
Read 16:4-5. Ask why Samson stays.
Three rounds
Read 16:6-14. Take question one and confusion two.
All his heart and he wist not
Read 16:15-22. Take questions two and three and confusion one. Read 16:22 as a line of hope.
Dagon
Read 16:23-27 with 1 Samuel 5:1-4. Take question four.
Remember me
Read 16:28-31. Take questions five and six and confusions three and four, with care.
Hebrews 11
Read Hebrews 11:32-34 and ask what it means that out of weakness people were made strong.
Response and handout
Choose one application. Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line and pray.
Adapting the lesson
Judges 14:1–16:3
Children
Use pictures: a lion, a jar of honey, a jawbone and a city gate. Tell the children that God made Samson very strong to fight Israel's enemies. Leave out the wedding quarrel, the burning of the woman and her father, and the visit to Gaza in 16:1; say only that Samson went to an enemy city. Teach 15:18: even strong Samson needed God for a drink of water.
Youth
Youth will connect with Samson's choices driven by what looks right. Build an escalation chain from 14:15 to 15:8 and ask where someone could have stopped it. Talk honestly about revenge online and in friendships. Handle 16:1 briefly and without joking. Ask what it means that God used Samson but did not approve of everything he did.
Adults
Spend time on 14:4 and on providence and responsibility, with Genesis 50:20. Discuss the cost of revenge to the people caught in the middle, especially the Timnite woman and her father. Some adults have lived through family feuds; handle 15:6 with seriousness. Explore Judah's choice in 15:11-13 to hand over their own deliverer.
One to one
Read 15:14-19 together and ask the person where they feel strong and where they feel dry. Stay with 15:18-19: a thirsty man calls, and God opens a spring. If they are carrying a pattern of choices they keep repeating, let 14:3 and 16:1 be heard gently, and pray with them for the strength Samson lacked.
Judges 16:4–31
Children
Tell the children that Samson told his secret to someone who wanted to hurt him, and that he lost his strength because he stopped taking God's gift seriously. Say that the enemies captured him, and leave out the blinding. Focus on his prayer: God, remember me. Let the children pray that prayer. Say simply that God answered and Samson defeated the enemies, without describing the deaths.
Youth
Track the three tests and ask why Samson stayed with someone who kept betraying him. Talk about relationships and pressure that wears people down, as in 16:16. Spend time on 16:20: the danger of assuming you are fine. Handle the end carefully; if any youth raises suicide, take it seriously and know your church's safeguarding process.
Adults
Adults can discuss Samson's mixed motives and the LORD's answer in 16:28-30, and the broader theme of the Spirit leaving in 16:20. Some may carry addictions or relationships that wear them down; teach 16:16 and 16:20 with compassion. Be careful with the topic of suicide and do not use this passage to make pronouncements about it.
One to one
Read 16:20-22 together. Ask whether the person has ever woken up to find something precious gone. Then read 16:22 and 16:28. If they feel far from God, let "remember me" be their prayer. If they mention thoughts of harming themselves, stop the lesson, listen, and make sure they are connected to help.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Judges 14:1–16:3
The passage in brief
Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman because she pleases him, though his parents object; the LORD is working through it against the Philistines. The Spirit gives him strength to kill a lion, and he later takes honey from its body. His wedding riddle leads to threats against his wife, a betrayal, and a chain of revenge in which his wife and her father are burned. Judah hands Samson over, but he kills a thousand Philistines with a jawbone. Thirsty, he calls on the LORD, who gives him water.
A verse to keep
And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
Judges 15:18 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What reason did Samson give for wanting the Timnite woman in 14:3?
Why did Samson's wife press him for the answer to the riddle, in 14:15?
What did Samson admit to the LORD in 15:18?
This week
When you feel strong this week, stop once a day and thank the LORD that the strength is his.
Judges 16:4–31
The passage in brief
Samson loves Delilah, who is paid by the Philistine lords to find the secret of his strength. Three times he lies to her, and three times he escapes. Finally, worn down, he tells her all his heart: he is a Nazirite and has never cut his hair. While he sleeps, she has his hair cut, and the LORD leaves him without his knowing. The Philistines blind him and put him to work in prison. At a feast to their god Dagon, Samson prays to be remembered and strengthened once more, and he brings down the house.
A verse to keep
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.
Judges 16:28 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What did Samson give away when he told Delilah all his heart in 16:17?
What did Samson not know in 16:20?
What two things did Samson ask for in his prayer in 16:28?
This week
Name one gift God has given you that you have been careless with, and give it back to him in prayer this week.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
