Judges / Samson's Marriage, Riddle, and Retaliation

Samson's Marriage, Riddle, and Retaliation

Judges 14:1-20

Chapter 14

¹ And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw there a woman from the daughters of the Philistines in Timnah. ² He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. Now get her for me as a wife." ³ And his father and his mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your brothers and all my people, that you are going to take a woman from the uncircumcised Philistines?" And Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is upright in my eyes." ⁴ And his father and his mother did not know that it was from the LORD, that he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. And at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. ⁵ Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. When they came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion roared at him. ⁶ Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one tears a young goat, with nothing in his hands. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷ And he went down and spoke to the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes. ⁸ After some days he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. ⁹ He scooped it into his palms and went on. He ate as he went to his father and mother, and he gave some to them and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's belly. ¹⁰ And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for thus the young men do. ¹¹ And when they saw him, they took thirty companions to be with him. ¹² Samson said to them, "Please let me give you a riddle. If you can solve it and tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes." ¹³ But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you will give me thirty linen sheets and thirty changes of garments." And they said to him, "Pose your riddle; let us hear it." ¹⁴ And he said to them, "From the eater came food, and from the strong came sweetness." And they could not declare the riddle for three days. ¹⁵ And it was on the seventh day when they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband so that he will reveal the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?" ¹⁶ And Samson's wife wept over him and said, "You have only hated me and not loved me; you have posed the riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not told it to me." He said to her, "Behold, I have not told it to my father or my mother, but to you I will tell it." ¹⁷ And she wept over him for seven days of the feast they had, and it was on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him, and she told the riddle to the sons of her people. ¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before sunset, "What is sweeter than honey, and 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." ¹⁹ Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He struck down thirty of their men, took their leg-clothings, and gave the change-clothings to those who had told the riddle. And his anger burned, so he went up to his father's house. ²⁰ And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.