Judges 16:27

Jdg 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines [were] there; and [there were] upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.

Ver. 27. Now the house.] Dagon’s temple: that where they had sinned, there they might suffer. So Ahab’s blood was licked up by dogs in the place where he had slain Naboth. {1Ki 21:19} So Henry III of France was stabbed to death in that very chamber where he had contrived the massacre of Paris.

Was full of men and women.] Assembled they were, by an overruling Providence, that they might be "broken in pieces." {Isa 8:9} So were the Baalites in mount Carmel, {1Ki 18:40} and afterwards in the house of their god, to be slain by Jehu. And so were the refractory Jews besieged and taken by the Romans at the feast of the Passover, when they were met together out of all parts of the land.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 16:27. There were upon the roof, &c. — The roof was flat, and had windows, through which they might see what was done in the lower parts of the house.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, was mocked.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

HIS DEATH. (Jdg 16:26-31)

there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport--This building seems to have been similar to the spacious and open amphitheaters well known among the Romans and still found in many countries of the East. They are built wholly of wood. The standing place for the spectators is a wooden floor resting upon two pillars and rising on an inclined plane, so as to enable all to have a view of the area in the center. In the middle there are two large beams, on which the whole weight of the structure lies, and these beams are supported by two pillars placed almost close to each other, so that when these are unsettled or displaced, the whole pile must tumble to the ground.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 27. Now the house was full of men] It was either the prison-house, house of assembly, or a temple of Dagon, raised on pillars, open on all sides, and flat-roofed, so that it could accommodate a multitude of people on the top.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(27) The house was full of men and women . . . upon the roof about three thousand men and women.—The words for “men and women” in the first clause are anashim and nashim, and in the second eesh and eeshsha. The more distinguished people were with the lords in the house itself; the common people were on the flat roof.

There were upon the roof.—The temple may have been like a Turkish kiosk, “a spacious hall, of which the roof rested in front upon four columns, two of them standing at the ends, and two close together in the centre. Under this hall the chief Philistines celebrated a sacrificial meal, whilst the people were assembled above upon the top of the roof, which was surrounded by a balustrade” (Faber, Archäol. d. Hebr., quoted by Keil). “His puissant locks,” as Milton says, “sternly shook thunder with ruin upon the heads of those his evil counsellors, but not without great affliction to himself.” In the life of Samson and the incidents of Judges 18 we find the chief illustrations of the character of his tribe as described in Jacob’s blessing Gen_49:16-17). Hence, perhaps, he is called Bedan in 1Sa_12:11, if we follow the improbable gloss of the Targum in making the word there mean a Danite.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. and all the lords … three thousand men and women] No doubt an insertion to heighten the effect; grammatically full of men and women is carried on by that beheld, shewing that the intervening words are not original. No mention of the people on the roof is made in Jdg_16:30. The LXX. cod. B has 70 for 3000.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now the house was full of men and women,.... Within it, who were gathered together from all parts of the city, and perhaps from other places on this occasion:

and all the lords of the Philistines were there; their five lords, the lords of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron:

and there were upon the roof three thousand men and women; it being a flat roof, as the houses in Canaan and Phoenicia, and the places adjacent, were; see Deu 22:8 and there might be some openings or windows in several parts of it, through which the people might see who were below them, and were within the house, and what was doing there, and particularly could have a sight of Samson through them as follows:

that beheld while Samson made sport; or was made a sport of; while he was buffeted and used in a ludicrous manner.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Play. It is not clear from the text, whether the 3000 were distinct from those who were below. It seems this is the number of all the slain, (Calmet) as Josephus asserts. But the Protestants insert, "the lords of the Philistines were there: and there were upon the roof," &c., which shews that they understand it in the same sense as the Vulgate and the Septuagint which distinguish these outside spectators from those who filled the house, and were in company with the princes. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The roof, after the manner of the times, was flat, and had windows through which they might see what was done in the lower parts of the house.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. Upon the roof about three thousand — A roof one hundred and fifty feet square would afford a space of nearly a square yard for each one of these, and probably the roof of this building was still larger than this.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now the house was full, etc. We do not know what was the construction of Philistine temples or houses of amusement; but from the description here given it seems that the interior was ranged like an amphitheatre, with seats for the lords and principal people, and with an open front, so as to command a view of the stage just outside, and that front supported by pillars on which the beams of the roof, both the transverse beam and the longitudinal ones running into it, rested. The roof itself was fiat, and had the weight of 3000 people upon it, throwing a great strain upon the beams which rested upon the pillars. The sudden removal of the pillars would bring the roof down at that end, crowded as it was with the people, and would inevitably drag the whole mass in the same direction one over another, while the swaying of the people would bring the whole roof down upon the heads of those beneath, who would be crushed by the heavy timbers and stones and bodies of men falling upon them.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The roof - Which was flat, and had window's through which they might see what was done in the lower parts of the house.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Now

This word is used here to mark a break in the main story while the writer tells background information. (See: Background Information)

three thousand men and women

"3,000 men and women" (See: Numbers)

looking on

"watching"

while Samson was entertaining them

It is unclear what Samson did to entertain them. It seems the Philistines were making him do things that would humiliate him so that they could make fun of him.

translationWords

rule

Philistines

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.