Judges Chapter 16 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - And she fastened it with the pin. The Septuagint and many commentators understand that she used the pin (it is the common word for a tent pin) to fasten the loom or frame to the ground, or to the wall. But a good sense comes out if we understand the phrase to mean, So she struck with the shuttle, i.e. she did what Samson told her to do, viz., wove his locks into the warp which was already prepared. This was done by successive strokes of the shuttle, to which the hair was fastened. To strike with the peg or shuttle may have been the technical phrase for throwing the shuttle with the woof into the warp; and it is a strong argument in favour of this interpretation that it makes her action the simple fulfilment of his directions. He said, "Weave my locks into the warp. So she struck with the shuttle." With the pin of the beam, and with the web. The Hebrew word 'ereg cannot mean the beam, as it is here translated; it is the substantive of the verb to weave in ver. 13. Its obvious meaning, therefore, is the woof. The pin of the woof, therefore, is the shuttle with the woof attached to it, i.e. Samson's hair, which was firmly woven into the warp. He went away with. This is the same word as was applied in ver. 3 to his plucking up the gateposts. Now, with the strength of his neck, he tore up the shuttle which fastened his hair to the warp, and so dragged the whole solid frame along with it. However, as we do not know the technical term of the art of the weaving among the Hebrews and Philistines, nor the precise construction of their looms, some obscurity necessarily attaches to this description.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) She fastened it with the pin.--Unless the additions of the Vulg. and the LXX. to the last verse were in the original text, she had not been told by Samson to do this, but did it to make assurance doubly sure. The versions add that she drove the pin "into the wall" (LXX.) or "into the ground" (Vulg.).Went away with.--Rather, tore up, as in Judges 16:3.With the pin of the beam, and with the web.--The words are technical, but the "pin" or "plug" seems to be the wooden peg with which the web was fastened down; and the "beam" was certainly not the "weaver's beam" of 1Samuel 17:7, but apparently "the comb." The loom was doubtless one of a simple kind in ordinary domestic use (like that described in Livingstone's Travels), and Samson, startled from sleep, tore away his locks with the plug which fastened them down and the warp into which they were woven.