Judges 16:2 (KJV)

Passage

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

Judges 16:2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

Judges 16:3 And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.

Judges 16:4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "told", "gazites", "saying", "samson", "come", "hither", "compassed", and "laid". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "told" and "gazites", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "Then went Samson to Gaza and saw..." into verse 3's "And Samson lay till midnight and arose...", so "told" and "gazites" 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 "told" and "gazites" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.