Samson's Final Victory
Blind and captive, Samson is brought to entertain the Philistines. He prays for strength one last time and brings down the temple, dying with his enemies.
The Philistine rulers assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to celebrate. 'Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands!'
As their hearts were merry, they shouted, 'Bring out Samson to entertain us!' They brought him from prison and made him perform. They stood him among the pillars of the temple.
The temple was crowded. All the Philistine rulers were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.
Samson said to the servant who held his hand, 'Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so I may lean against them.'
Then Samson prayed, 'Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.'
Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other, he said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!'
Then he pushed with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the rulers and all the people in it.
Thus Samson killed many more when he died than while he lived.
His brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.
Samson's life was marked by failure and compromise. Yet at the end, in his weakness and blindness, he called upon the Lord. God answered, granting him one final surge of strength. The flawed judge became a picture of redemption—that even in our darkest moments, God hears our prayers.