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Verse

Judges 16:24

ESV And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.”
NIV When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, 'Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain.'
NASB When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, 'Our god has handed our enemy over to us, Even the destroyer of our country, Who has killed many of us.'
CSB When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead.
NLT When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, 'Our god has delivered our enemy to us! The one who killed so many of us is now in our power!'
KJV And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

What does Judges 16:24 mean?

Samson was the Philistine's public enemy number one. They all praised Dagon—an idol adapted from the Amorites—when they saw that Samson was finally captured and humiliated in his blindness. In this way, the Philistines demonstrate the kind of faithfulness to their false god which the true God of Israel wants to see, in His own people, towards Him. Instead, Israel has repeatedly abandoned Him to take part in the worship of the false gods of Canaan and the surrounding nations.

It's not just Philistines rulers who give credit to the false god Dagon for Samson's capture. His feats of terror against the Philistines (Judges 15:4–5; 14–15; 16:3) have alarmed the populace for years (Judges 15:20). So long as Samson was free, the Philistines in Palestine could not feel safe. This, of course, was the point of God's use of Samson (Judges 13:5; 14:4). Samson's coarse, immoral lifestyle is difficult to understand, but the main purpose of his life was to shatter the complacent oppression wielded by the Philistines. The assembled nobles don't know it yet, but this unique judge (Judges 2:16–19) will once more strike terror into those who harm God's people (Judges 16:30).
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