Judges Chapter 14
Samson is all grown up and looking for love. He sees a Philistine woman while he’s in Timnah and wants her. So he runs back to mom and dad and tells them to get her for him, like when a child wants a toy. We learn that this is part of some scheme to act against the Philistines. What happens next is best left up to the text itself.
5Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When he came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion roared at him. 6The spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and he tore the lion apart barehanded as one might tear apart a kid. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 385). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Samson has some pent up aggression, doesn’t he? Anyway, he talked to the woman and was digging her, so he married her after some unspecified period of time. On his way to marry her, he came across the lion carcass and bees had taken it over and he found honey inside. So, he scraped it out and ate it and gave some to his father, but he never told him where it came from.
Samson had a feast as a celebration of his nuptials to this unnamed woman. Thirty people joined him for the feast and then he proceeded to give them a riddle.
12Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. 13But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” So they said to him, “Ask your riddle; let us hear it.” 14He said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 385). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Naturally, this riddle is only answerable by Samson since it’s about the honey coming from the lion’s carcass. The companions ask Samson’s wife to get the answer from him and tell them. So she nags him for the entire feast until on the last day he tells her. And then she tells her people.
18The men of the town said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 386). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
There seems to be some innuendo going on here. I mean, did he just call his wife a heifer? Anyway, since he lost the game, he went to Ashkelon and killed thirty men for their garments. Then Samson went to his father’s house and gave his wife to his best man because she betrayed him, apparently.
Apologies for the many quoted verses, but it’s best to let the text do the talking. Obviously, we’re working toward the Leonard Cohen finale here, but that won’t be for another couple chapters.
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