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.
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.