Judges 16:2 (WEB)

Passage

The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.”

Nearby Context

Judges 16:1 Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.

Judges 16:2 The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.”

Judges 16:3 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

Judges 16:4 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 "light", "gazites", "told", "samson", "here", "surrounded", "laid", and "wait". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "light" and "gazites", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

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