In his blinded and weakened condition Sam'son was carried to Ga'za, where he became the slave of his captors. He was given the humiliating work of grinding corn with mill stones which were turnt by hand. As an object of ridicule and scorn in the city where he had performed one of his mightiest feats, and jeered by people who once had been terrified by him, Sam'son spent his closing days in unspeakable disgrace and shame. Yet now when Sam'son had lost his eyesight he saw more clearly the most valuable spiritual things of life: the folly of fraternizing with the forces of evil whom God had sent him to destroy; the gross sin of trifling with the sacred vows of consecration to God; the realization that spiritual power can be retained and exercised only while living in harmony with the will of God; that restoration is secured by repentance.
The Phi-lis'tines regarded their final subjection of Sam'son as a triumph of their fish-god Da'gon over the God of Is'ra-el, and all the nobles of the land gathered in the fine temple at Ga'za to engage in a great festive celebration of Sam'son's humiliation. The whole temple was filled with throngs of people, and more than three thousand made merry on the roof-garden. Sam'son was brought to the festival that he might be jeered and buffeted, and to be ridiculed in every possible way.
But the LORD had shown mercy toward Sam'son, whose hair was beginning to grow again. He felt his former strength returning, and sought an opportunity of using it once more in vengeance upon his enemies. He had learnt of the manner in which the temple was built, and had probably seen it before his eyes were put out.
Standing in the center of the great hall of the temple were two huge pillars which supported the beams for the galleries and for the central part of the roof-garden. Sam'son was placed in the middle of the crowd so that they could make sport of him as he blindly danced before them. He asked the boy who was guiding him to let him lean against the pillars to rest. Standing between the two huge pillars, Sam'son prayed:
"O LORD God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me,
I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged
of the Phi-lis'tines for my two eyes."
Then he took hold of the two pillars and surged at them with all his might, saying as he did so:
"Let me die with the Phi-lis'tines."
The pillars began to sway, they tottered, they were broken; and the whole building collapsed into one terrible mass of ruins, bringing death to the vast throngs of Phi-lis'tines who were engaged in drunken revelry and jeers against the True God of Is'ra-el. The clamors of revelry and idolatry were suddenly changed into shrieks of agony and dying groans as thousands perished.
Among the thousands of slain Phi-lis'tines there lay the body of the hero of Is'ra-el who, for twenty years, had held the oppressors of his nation in a state of constant fear by his superhuman exploits. He had now given his life in one final mighty deed against the enemies of God.
His kinsmen and friends from the tribe of Dan were permitted to remove the body from the ruins of the temple of Da'gon, and it was buried with honor in the cemetery of his father near the mountain home where he had resided throughout his remarkable career. The stories of his exploits became highly prized in the later development of Is'ra-el as a nation, and Sam'son's name has been immortalized by poets and musicians.
