Judges 16:2
And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him. And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
The verse belongs to the account of Samson's life among the Philistines, showing that his friendly association with Israel's enemies began in youth and darkened his whole life. His presence in Gaza on a visit to a prostitute was a further step in unlawful conduct and a violation of his Nazarite calling. When the people of Gaza learned that Samson had come into the city, they surrounded him and lay in wait all night at the city gate, intending to kill him when morning came.
The Gazites were afraid to attack him directly. Their confidence lay in having trapped him inside Gaza's fortified walls. At midnight Samson escaped by tearing away and carrying off the city gate with its posts and bars. He carried the gate to a hill on the road to Hebron.
Even then God's mercy had not forsaken him, and his great strength again delivered him. His history teaches that physical strength cannot take the place of self-control and reliance on God, for though able to choose right or wrong he let passion rule him, and the course he chose ended in shame, disaster and death.