Bible Strands
Judges 16:29
And Samson reached out for the two central pillars supporting the temple. Bracing himself against them with his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Samson acts alone inside the Philistine temple immediately after praying for renewed strength to repay his captors for his blindness. He positions himself between the two central pillars to execute his final strike.
The words — The text highlights וַיִּלְפֹּת (va.yilpot), meaning "and he grasped," and עַמּוּדֵי הַתָּוֶךְ ('amude ha-tavokh), meaning "the pillars of the middle." These terms specify Samson's physical contact with the structural supports of the house.
The thread — The motif of temple pillars supporting a structure appears in the construction details of Solomon’s sanctuary (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17) and is destroyed during the Babylonian siege (2 Kings 25:13; Jeremiah 52:17). Samson's act mirrors the toppling of sacred architecture when divine judgment falls.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that physical strength, when surrendered to divine purpose, becomes an instrument of irreversible consequence. It asks the reader to weigh the cost of defiance against the certainty of collapse.
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
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.