14:19 The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes 1 and gave them 2 to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home. 3
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
He said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer, 4
you would not have solved my riddle!”
1 tn Heb “equipment”; or “gear.”
2 tn Heb “changes [of clothes].”
3 tn Heb “he went up to his father’s house.”
4 sn Plowed with my heifer. This statement emphasizes that the Philistines had utilized a source of information which should have been off-limits to them. Heifers were used in plowing (Hos 10:11), but one typically used one’s own farm animals, not another man’s.