Samson Pushing Apart the Temple PillarsBible World

Judges 16:25

And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.

This verse belongs to the account of Samson's decline after his ties with the Philistines had corrupted him and his disobedience had darkened his life, with nothing more explained about its events beyond that setting. His end came because he yielded to passion instead of relying on God's strength, so the path he chose led to shame and disaster and death.

The Philistines were celebrating their victory with a feast when they summoned Samson from the prison house to entertain them as a trophy and spectacle of their triumph. They mocked him and made his blindness and weakness and humiliation into sport for the crowd. They set him between the central pillars of their temple, where he asked to rest. This public mockery sets the scene for his final act, when he prayed for strength and brought the temple down.