Judges 7:4
7:4 The Lord spoke to Gideon again, “There are still too many men. 1 Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. 2 When I say, ‘This one should go with you,’ pick him to go; 3 when I say, 4 ‘This one should not go with you,’ do not take him.” 5
Judges 14:9
14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned 6 to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass. 7
Judges 18:14
18:14 The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish 8 said to their kinsmen, 9 “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.”
1 tn Heb “too many people.”
2 tn Heb “test them for you there.”
3 tn Heb “he should go with you.”
4 tn Heb also has “to you.”
5 tn Heb “he should not go.”
6 tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.
7 sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.
8 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the LXX lacks the phrase “of Laish.”
9 tn Heb “brothers.”