And Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand,.... And led him about; as nothing is more common now than for a blind man to be led by a boy:suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth; he might by information know in what manner the house was built, that it was supported by pillars, if he had never been in it before when he had his sight; and he might understand, by some means or another, that he was near these pillars, and placed between them, though being blind, did not know which way to direct his hands towards them to feel them, as he proposed to do, and therefore desired the lad that led him to guide his hands towards them:that I may lean upon them; being, as he might at least pretend to be, weary, as Josephus says ; either by grinding at the mill, or through being led to and fro in this house, that all might see him, and cast their flouts and jeers at him, Ut supra.
(Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 12.