And rejoicing in their feasts, when they had now taken their good cheer, they commanded that Samson should be called, and should play before them. And being brought out of prison, he played before them; and they made him stand between two pillars.
Judges 16:23 And the princes of the Philistines assembled together, to offer great sacrifices to Dagon their god, and to make merry, saying: Our god hath delivered our enemy Samson into our hands.
Judges 16:24 And the people also seeing this, praised their god, and said the same: Our god hath delivered our adversary into our hands, him that destroyed our country, and killed very many.
Judges 16:25 And rejoicing in their feasts, when they had now taken their good cheer, they commanded that Samson should be called, and should play before them. And being brought out of prison, he played before them; and they made him stand between two pillars.
Judges 16:26 And he said to the lad that guided his steps: Suffer me to touch the pillars which support the whole house, and let me lean upon them, and rest a little.
Judges 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women, and all the princes of the Philistines were there. Moreover about three thousand persons of both sexes, from the roof and the higher part of the house, were beholding Samson's play.
The verse centers on "called", "rejoicing", "feasts", "taken", "good", "cheer", "commanded", and "samson". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "called" and "rejoicing", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 24's "And the people also seeing this praised..." into verse 26's "And he said to the lad that...", so "called" and "rejoicing" belong inside that flow. In Judges context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "called" and "rejoicing" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.