Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. (Judges 16:27)
These were the rulers of the five Philistine districts who had bribed Delilah to betray Samson (see on v. 5).
Upon the roof.
These 3,000 people had probably sought a vantage point on the roof, so they could better watch the display as Samson was goaded and tormented before the crowd. This great weight would render certain the collapse of the roof if several columns were pushed over.
In the Hebrew the words for “men and women” are different in the first clause from those in the second. The distinction may be in classes, those on the main floor representing the nobility who sat with the “lords,” and those on the roof, the common people.