Judges 16 · Verse 21

Judges 16:21

But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

Judges 16:21, King James Version

Judges 16:21 in other translations

BSB	Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
WEB	The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
ASV	And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house.
YLT	And the Philistines seize him, and pick out his eyes, and bring him down to Gaza, and bind him with two brazen fetters; and he is grinding in the prison-house.
DARBY	And the Philistines seized him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gazah, and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he had to grind in the prison-house.
BBE	So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes; then they took him down to Gaza, and, chaining him with bands of brass, put him to work crushing grain in the prison-house.
Webster	But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house.

What does Judges 16:21 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

21. the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes--To this cruel privation prisoners of rank and consequence have commonly been subjected in the East. The punishment is inflicted in various ways, by scooping out the eyeballs, by piercing the eye, or destroying the sight by holding a red-hot iron before the eyes. His security was made doubly sure by his being bound with fetters of brass (copper), not of leather, like other captives. he did grind in the prison-house--This grinding with hand-millstones being the employment of menials, he was set to it as the deepest degradation.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 21 Put out his eyes - Thus was the lust of the eye, in looking after and gazing on strange women, punished. As the Philistines did not know that his strength might not return, they put out his eyes, that he might never be able to plan any enterprise against them. He did grind in the prison-house - Before the invention of wind and water-mills, the grain was at first bruised between two stones, afterwards ground in hand-mills. This is practiced in China and in different parts of the East still; and women and slaves are the persons who are obliged to turn these mills. Such instruments were anciently used in this country, and called querns, from the Anglo-Saxon and cweorn and cwyrn, which has the signification of a mill; hence cweorn stan, a millstone: and as quern conveys the notion of grinding, hence, cweornteth, the dentes molares or grinders in the jaws of animals. This clause of the verse is thus translated in the Saxon Octateuch: "And the Philistines laid their fangs, (seized) him soon, and led him away to their burgh, (city), and shut him up in prison, and made him grind at their hand-querne." So late as half a century ago I have seen these querns or hand-mills in these kingdoms.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Judges 16:18-21

See the fatal effects of false security. Satan ruins men by flattering them into a good opinion of their own safety, and so bringing them to mind nothing, and fear nothing; and then he robs them of their strength and honour, and leads them captive at his will. When we sleep our spiritual enemies do not. Samson's eyes were the inlets of his sin, (ver. #(1),) and now his punishment began there. Now the Philistines…

Read the full comment on Judges 16:18-21 →

Judges 16:21 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַיֹּאחֲז֣וּהוּvai.yo.cha.Zu.huand they seized himH270

פְלִשְׁתִּ֔יםfe.lish.Tim[the] PhilistinesH6430

וַֽיְנַקְּר֖וּvay.na.ke.Ruand they gouged outH5365

אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853

עֵינָ֑יו'ei.Naveyes hisH5869

וַיּוֹרִ֨ידוּvai.yo.Ri.duand they brought downH3381

אוֹת֜וֹ'o.To<obj.> himH853

עַזָּ֗תָה'a.Za.tahGaza towardsH5804

וַיַּאַסְר֙וּהוּ֙vai.ya.'as.Ru.huand they bound himH631

בַּֽנְחֻשְׁתַּ֔יִםban.chush.Ta.yimwith <the> bronze fettersH5178

וַיְהִ֥יvay.Hiand he wasH1961

טוֹחֵ֖ןto.ChengrindingH2912

בְּבֵ֥יתbe.Veitin [the] house ofH1004

הָאֲסוּרִֽים\׃ha.'a.si.rimthose imprisonedH631

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Judges 16:21

Proverbs 2:19
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
Proverbs 14:14
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.
Exodus 11:5
And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
Isaiah 47:2
Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Matthew 24:41
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Proverbs 5:22
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
2 Chronicles 33:11
Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
Psalms 149:8
To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
Psalms 107:10-12
Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
2 Kings 25:7
And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

and put out. Heb. and bored out.
Pr 5:22; 14:14; 2:19
bound him.
2Ki 25:7; 2Ch 33:11; Ps 107:10-12; 149:8
grind.
Ex 11:5; Isa 47:2; Mt 24:41

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Judges 16:20
And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.
Judges 16:21
But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
Judges 16:22
Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

Read all of Judges 16

Judges 16:21 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Mas los Filisteos echaron mano de él, y sacáronle los ojos, y le llevaron á Gaza; y le ataron con cadenas, para que moliese en la cárcel.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Et les Philistins le saisirent et lui crevèrent les yeux, et le firent descendre à Gaza, et le lièrent avec des chaînes d’airain; et il tournait la meule dans la maison des prisonniers.
German Elberfelder 1871	Und sie Philister griffen ihn und stachen ihm die Augen aus; und sie führten ihn nach Gasa hinab und banden ihn mit ehernen Fesseln, und er mußte mahlen im Gefängnis.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Quem cum apprehendissent Philisthiim, statim eruerunt oculos ejus, et duxerunt Gazam vinctum catenis, et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt.