Judges 16:3 (YLT)

Passage

And Samson lieth down till the middle of the night, and riseth in the middle of the night, and layeth hold on the doors of the gate of the city, and on the two side posts, and removeth them with the bar, and putteth on his shoulders, and taketh them up unto the top of the hill, which <FI>is<Fi> on the front of Hebron.

Nearby Context

Judges 16:1 And Samson goeth to Gaza, and seeth there a woman, a harlot, and goeth in unto her;

Judges 16:2 <FI> it is told<Fi> to the Gazathites, saying, `Samson hath come in hither;' and they go round and lay wait for him all the night at the gate of the city, and keep themselves silent all the night, saying, `Till the light of the morning--then we have slain him.'

Judges 16:3 And Samson lieth down till the middle of the night, and riseth in the middle of the night, and layeth hold on the doors of the gate of the city, and on the two side posts, and removeth them with the bar, and putteth on his shoulders, and taketh them up unto the top of the hill, which <FI>is<Fi> on the front of Hebron.

Judges 16:4 And it cometh to pass afterwards that he loveth a woman in the valley of Sorek, and her name <FI>is<Fi> Delilah,

Judges 16:5 and the princes of the Philistines come up unto her, and say to her, `Entice him, and see wherein his great power <FI>is<Fi> , and wherein we are able for him--and we have bound him to afflict him, and we--we give to thee, each one, eleven hundred silverlings.'

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "samson", "lieth", "down", "till", "middle", "night", and "riseth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "samson" and "lieth", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "FI it is told Fi to the..." into verse 4's "And it cometh to pass afterwards that...", so "samson" and "lieth" 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 "samson" and "lieth" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.