Judges Chapter 14
Samson’s Marriage
1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young Philistine woman. 2 He came up and told his parents, “I saw a young Philistine woman at Timnah. Get her for me for a wife.”
3 They said, “Isn’t there a woman among your relatives or all our people that you have to marry a woman from the uncircumcised Philistines?”
But he told his father, “Get her for me; I really like her.”
4 His parents didn’t know it was all right with the LORD because he was looking for an occasion against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines controlled Israel.
5 Samson went down to Timnah with his parents and came to the vineyards at Timnah. A young lion roared at him, 6 and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on him. Barehanded he tore the lion apart like it was a kid. 7 He went down and talked to the woman, and she pleased him well. 8 After a while, he went back to take her and turned aside to see the lion’s carcass. There was a swarm of bees and honey in it. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. He came to his parents and gave them some to eat; but he didn’t tell them he got it out of the lion’s carcass. Jud 14:1-9
10His father went down to the woman, and Samson held a feast there. That’s the way young men used to do. 11 When the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. 12 Samson said to them,
“Let me put a riddle to you. If you can figure it out and tell me during the week of the feast, I’ll give you 30 linen tunics and 30 festive robes. 13 If you can’t, you’ll give me that many.”
“Let’s hear it.”
14 He said, “Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
In three days they couldn’t explain the riddle. Jud 14:10-14
15 The fourth day, they told Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle means, or we’ll burn you and your father’s family. Have you invited us here to make us poor?”
16 Samson’s wife cried in front of him, “You just hate me, you don’t love me. You’ve put a riddle to my countrymen and haven’t told me what it means.”
He told her, “I haven’t told my own parents. Am I going to tell you?”
17 She cried in his presence the week the feast lasted. The seventh day, he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told her countrymen the riddle. 18 The men of the city told him on the seventh day before the sun set,
“What’s sweeter than honey?
What’s stronger than a lion?”
He told them,
“If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer,
you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.”
19 The Spirit of the LORD came on him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 men from the city. He took their spoil and gave the festive robes to the ones that told him the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20 So Samson’s father-in-law gave his wife to his companion, who had been his best man. Jud 14:15-20