16 One day Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute. ² Word soon spread that he had been seen in the city, so the police were alerted and many men of the city lay in wait all night at the city gate to capture him if he tried to leave.

“In the morning,” they thought, “when there is enough light, we’ll find him and kill him.”

³ Samson stayed in bed with the girl until midnight, then went out to the city gates and lifted them, with the two gateposts, right out of the ground. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain across from Hebron!