Discovery BoxJudges 14:1--15:20 
Context14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. 1 14:2 When he got home, 2 he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. 3 Now get her for my wife.” 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our 4 people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” 5 But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, 6 because she is the right one for me.” 7 14:4 Now his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord’s doing, 8 because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines 9 (for at that time the Philistines were ruling Israel).
14:5 Samson went down to Timnah. When he approached 10 the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a roaring young lion attacking him. 11 14:6 The Lord’s spirit empowered 12 him and he tore the lion 13 in two with his bare hands 14 as easily as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
14:7 Samson continued on down to Timnah 15 and spoke to the girl. In his opinion, she was just the right one. 16 14:8 Some time later, when he went back to marry 17 her, he turned aside to see the lion’s remains. He saw 18 a swarm of bees in the lion’s carcass, as well as some honey. 14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned 19 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. 20
14:10 Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. 21 Samson hosted a party 22 there, for this was customary for bridegrooms 23 to do. 14:11 When the Philistines saw he had no attendants, they gave him thirty groomsmen who kept him company. 24 14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, 25 I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets 26 of clothes. 14:13 But if you cannot solve it, 27 you will give me thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.” They said to him, “Let us hear your riddle.” 28 14:14 He said to them,
“Out of the one who eats came something to eat;
out of the strong one came something sweet.”
They could not solve the riddle for three days.
14:15 On the fourth 29 day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. 30 If you refuse, 31 we will burn up 32 you and your father’s family. 33 Did you invite us here 34 to make us poor?” 35 14:16 So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder 36 and said, “You must 37 hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men 38 a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her, “Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?” 39 14:17 She cried on his shoulder 40 until the party was almost over. 41 Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. 42 Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. 43 14:18 On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
He said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer, 44
you would not have solved my riddle!”
14:19 The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes 45 and gave them 46 to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home. 47 14:20 Samson’s bride was then given to his best man. 48
15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, 49 Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. 50 He said to her father, 51 “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” 52 But her father would not let him enter. 15:2 Her father said, “I really thought 53 you absolutely despised 54 her, so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more attractive than she is. Take her instead!” 55 15:3 Samson said to them, 56 “This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!” 57 15:4 Samson went and captured three hundred jackals 58 and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. 59 15:5 He lit the torches 60 and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. 15:6 The Philistines asked, 61 “Who did this?” They were told, 62 “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite 63 took Samson’s 64 bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. 65 15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, 66 I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” 67 15:8 He struck them down and defeated them. 68 Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.
15:9 The Philistines went up and invaded 69 Judah. They arrayed themselves for battle 70 in Lehi. 15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking 71 us?” The Philistines 72 said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.” 15:11 Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.” 15:12 They said to him, “We have come down to take you prisoner so we can hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Promise me 73 you will not kill 74 me.” 15:13 They said to him, “We promise! 75 We will only take you prisoner and hand you over to them. We promise not to kill you.” They tied him up with two brand new ropes and led him up from the cliff. 15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered 76 him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in 77 fire, and they 78 melted away from his hands. 15:15 He happened to see 79 a solid 80 jawbone of a donkey. He grabbed it 81 and struck down 82 a thousand men. 15:16 Samson then said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps; 83
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down 84 and named that place Ramath Lehi. 85
15:18 He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant 86 this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” 87 15:19 So God split open the basin 88 at Lehi and water flowed out from it. When he took a drink, his strength 89 was restored and he revived. For this reason he named the spring 90 En Hakkore. 91 It remains in Lehi to this very day. 15:20 Samson led 92 Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence. 93
1 tn Heb “and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”
2 tn Heb “and he went up.”
3 tn Heb “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”
4 tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.
5 tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”
6 tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.
7 tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”
8 tn Heb “this was from the LORD.”
9 tn Heb “for an opportunity he was seeking from the Philistines.”
10 tc The MT reads, “Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When they approached…” Verse 6b states that Samson did not tell his parents about his encounter with the lion (vv. 5b-6a), but v. 5a gives the impression they would have seen the entire episode. One could assume that Samson separated from his parents prior to the lion’s attack, but the Hebrew text does not indicate this. It seems more likely that the words “with his father and his mother” were accidentally copied into the text, perhaps under the influence of v. 4a, where the same phrase appears. An original singular verb (“he approached”) may have been changed to the plural form (“they approached”) after the words “his father and his mother” were accidentally added to the text.
11 tn Heb “and look, a young lion of the lions was roaring to meet him.”
12 tn Heb “rushed on.”
13 tn Heb “him” or “it”; the referent (the lion) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Heb “and there was nothing in his hand.”
15 tn Heb “He went down.”
16 tn Heb “She was the right one in the eyes of Samson.”
17 tn Heb “get.”
18 tn Heb “and look, a swarm of bees…”
19 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.
20 sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.
21 tn Heb “And his father went down to the woman.”
22 tn Or “[wedding] feast.”
23 tn Heb “the young men.”
24 tn Heb “When they saw him, they gave him thirty companions and they were with him.” Instead of כִּרְאוֹתָם (kir’otam, “when they saw”) some ancient witnesses (e.g., some
25 tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”
26 tn Heb “changes.”
27 tn Heb “you are unable to tell me.”
28 tn Heb “Give your riddle so we can hear it.”
29 tc The MT reads “seventh.” In Hebrew there is a difference of only one letter between the words רְבִיעִי (rÿvi’i, “fourth”) and שְׁבִיעִי (shÿvi’i, “seventh”). Some ancient textual witnesses (e.g., LXX and the Syriac Peshitta) read “fourth,” here, which certainly harmonizes better with the preceding verse (cf. “for three days”) and with v. 17. Another option is to change שְׁלֹשֶׁת (shÿloshet, “three”) at the end of v. 14 to שֵׁשֶׁת (sheshet, “six”), but the resulting scenario does not account as well for v. 17, which implies the bride had been hounding Samson for more than one day.
30 tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”
31 tn Heb “lest.”
32 tn The Hebrew text expands the statement: “burn up with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons.
33 tn Heb “house.”
34 tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew
35 tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.
36 tn Heb “on him.”
37 tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”
38 tn Heb “the sons of my people.”
39 tn Heb “Should I tell you?”
40 tn Heb “on him.”
41 tn Heb “the seven days [during] which they held the party.” This does not mean she cried for the entire seven days; v. 15 indicates otherwise. She cried for the remainder of the seven day period, beginning on the fourth day.
42 tn Heb “because she forced him.”
43 tn Heb “she told the riddle to the sons of her people.”
44 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.
45 tn Heb “equipment”; or “gear.”
46 tn Heb “changes [of clothes].”
47 tn Heb “he went up to his father’s house.”
48 tn Heb “to his companion who had been his attendant.”
49 sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.
50 tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”
51 tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).
52 tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).
53 tn Heb “saying, I said.” The first person form of אָמַר (’amar, “to say”) sometimes indicates self-reflection. The girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
54 tn Heb “hating, you hated.” Once again the girl’s father uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
55 tn Heb “Is her younger sister not better than her? Let her [i.e., the younger sister] be yours instead of her [i.e., Samson’s ‘bride’]).”
56 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the (original) LXX has the singular “to him.”
57 tn Heb “I am innocent this time from the Philistines when I do with them harm.”
58 tn Traditionally, “foxes.”
59 tn Heb “He turned tail to tail and placed one torch between the two tails in the middle.”
60 tn Heb “He set fire to the torches.”
61 tn Or “said.”
62 tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.
63 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
64 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
65 tn The Hebrew text expands the statement with the additional phrase “burned with fire.” The words “with fire” are redundant in English and have been omitted from the translation for stylistic reasons. Some textual witnesses read “burned…her father’s house,” perhaps under the influence of 14:15. On the other hand, the shorter text may have lost this phrase due to haplography.
66 tn The Niphal of נָקָם (naqam, “to avenge, to take vengeance”) followed by the preposition ב (bet) has the force “to get revenge against.” See 1 Sam 18:25; Jer 50:15; Ezek 25:12.
67 tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”
68 tn Heb “He struck them, calf on thigh, [with] a great slaughter.” The precise meaning of the phrase “calf on thigh” is uncertain.
69 tn Or “camped in.”
70 tn Or “spread out.” The Niphal of נָטָשׁ (natash) has this same sense in 2 Sam 5:18, 22.
71 tn Or “come up against.”
72 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
73 tn Or “swear to me.”
74 tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
75 tn Heb “No,” meaning that they will not harm him.
76 tn Heb “rushed on.”
77 tn Heb “burned with.”
78 tn Heb “his bonds.”
79 tn Heb “he found.”
80 tn Heb “fresh,” i.e., not decayed and brittle.
81 tn Heb “he reached out his hand and took it.”
82 tn The Hebrew text adds “with it.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
83 tn The precise meaning of the second half of the line (חֲמוֹר חֲמֹרָתָיִם, khamor khamoratayim) is uncertain. The present translation assumes that the phrase means, “a heap, two heaps” and refers to the heaps of corpses littering the battlefield. Other options include: (a) “I have made donkeys of them” (cf. NIV; see C. F. Burney, Judges, 373, for a discussion of this view, which understands a denominative verb from the noun “donkey”); (b) “I have thoroughly skinned them” (see HALOT 330 s.v. IV cj. חמר, which appeals to an Arabic cognate for support); (c) “I have stormed mightily against them,” which assumes the verb חָמַר (khamar, “to ferment; to foam; to boil up”).
84 tn Heb “from his hand.”
85 sn The name Ramath Lehi means “Height of the Jawbone.”
86 tn Heb “you have placed into the hand of your servant.”
87 tn Heb “the uncircumcised,” which in context refers to the Philistines.
88 tn The word translated “basin” refers to a circular-shaped depression in the land’s surface.
89 tn Heb “spirit.”
90 tn Heb “named it”; the referent (the spring) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
91 sn The name En Hakkore means “Spring of the one who cries out.”
92 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
93 tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”
