Bible Strands
Judges 16:1
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Samson acts alone as he travels to Gaza, entering the city without warning or divine instruction. The narrative places him at a moment of voluntary exposure just before the hostile Gazites discover his presence.
The words — `זוֹנָה (zo.Nah)` = prostitute identifies the woman he encounters, while `וַ/יָּבֹ֖א (va/i.ya.Vo')` = and he went/entered marks his deliberate movement into her dwelling.
The thread — The mention of Gaza echoes its established border in Joshua 15:47 and Genesis 10:19, while the encounter parallels the deliberate approach to a sex worker in Genesis 38:16.
Why it lands — The text records Samson’s unmediated choice to enter a hostile city for illicit company, demanding the reader track how his repeated disregard for boundaries precipitates the immediate threat described in Judges 16:2.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
Cross-references
- Joshua 15:47 Ashdod, with its towns and villages; Gaza, with its towns and villages, as far as the Brook of Egypt and the coastline of the Great Sea.
- Genesis 38:16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.
- Genesis 10:19 and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
- Ezra 9:1 After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.