Judges 16 Samson drops the temple of Dagon

 Judges 16

Samson drops the temple of Dagon

23 Then the Philistine princes came together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to rejoice, saying, Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.

24 Likewise, when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, and to that which has destroyed our land, and to that which has multiplied our dead.

25 And it came to pass, when their hearts rejoiced, that they said, Call Samson, that he may play before us. And they called Samson to prison, and he played in front of them, and made him stand between the columns.

26 Then Samson said to the young man who had him by the hand. Guide me to feel the columns on which the house stands, so that I lean against them.

27 Now the house was full of men and women: and there were also all the princes of the Philistines: and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who were watching Samson play.

28 Then Samson cried out to the Lord, and said, Lord Jehovah, I ask you to remember me, and make an effort now only this time, O God, that I may avenge the Philistines once and for all, through my two eyes.

29 So Samson embraced himself with the two pillars in the middle, on which the house stood, and leaned on them, with his right hand in one, and with his left in the other.

30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed down with strength, and the house fell on the princes and on all the people in it: and it was more the dead he killed in his death than those he had killed in his life.

31 Then his brothers went down, and all his father's house, and took him, and went up with him, and buried him between Zorah and Estaol, in the tomb of Manua his father: and he judged Israel twenty years.