The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.
Samson’s spiritual blindness resulted in his becoming blind physically (Judges 16:21). The Philistines seized him in Gaza as he had seized the Philistines’ gate there (Judges 16:3). The same Hebrew verb occurs in both verses, highlighting the comparison. Since he chose to be the slave of his physical passions rather than his God, God disciplined him with physical slavery (cf. Galatians 6:7). The Philistines may have tied him to a large millstone like an ox and compelled him to pull it in a circular pattern, or he may have ground a hand mill.