Discovery BoxJudges 14:10 
Context14:10 Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. 1 Samson hosted a party 2 there, for this was customary for bridegrooms 3 to do.
Judges 14:1
Context14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. 4
Judges 14:20
Context14:20 Samson’s bride was then given to his best man. 5
Judges 15:3
Context15:3 Samson said to them, 6 “This time I am justified in doing the Philistines harm!” 7
Judges 15:20
Context15:20 Samson led 8 Israel for twenty years during the days of Philistine prominence. 9
Judges 16:25
Context16:25 When they really started celebrating, 10 they said, “Call for Samson so he can entertain us!” So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. 11 They made him stand between two pillars.
Judges 14:5
Context14:5 Samson went down to Timnah. When he approached 12 the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a roaring young lion attacking him. 13
Judges 14:7
Context14:7 Samson continued on down to Timnah 14 and spoke to the girl. In his opinion, she was just the right one. 15
Judges 15:7
Context15:7 Samson said to them, “Because you did this, 16 I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” 17
Judges 16:1
Context16:1 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. 18
Judges 16:4
Context16:4 After this Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
Judges 16:6
Context16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.” 19
Judges 16:10
Context16:10 Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you deceived 20 me and told me lies! Now tell me how you can be subdued.”
Judges 13:24
Context13:24 Manoah’s wife 21 gave birth to a son and named him Samson. 22 The child grew and the Lord empowered 23 him.
Judges 15:4
Context15:4 Samson went and captured three hundred jackals 24 and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. 25
Judges 15:16
Context15:16 Samson then said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey
I have left them in heaps; 26
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have struck down a thousand men!”
Judges 16:26
Context16:26 Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Position me so I can touch the pillars that support the temple. 27 Then I can lean on them.”
Judges 15:6
Context15:6 The Philistines asked, 28 “Who did this?” They were told, 29 “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite 30 took Samson’s 31 bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. 32
Judges 14:12
Context14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, 33 I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets 34 of clothes.
Judges 15:10
Context15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why are you attacking 35 us?” The Philistines 36 said, “We have come up to take Samson prisoner so we can do to him what he has done to us.”
Judges 15:12
Context15:12 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 37 you will not kill 38 me.”
Judges 16:7
Context16:7 Samson said to her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh 39 bowstrings 40 that have not been dried, I will become weak and be just like any other man.”
Judges 16:20
Context16:20 She said, “The Philistines are here, 41 Samson!” He woke up 42 and thought, 43 “I will do as I did before 44 and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the Lord had left him.
Judges 16:23
Context16:23 The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”
Judges 16:27-30
Context16:27 Now the temple 45 was filled with men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. There were three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain. 16:28 Samson called to the Lord, “O Master, Lord, 46 remember me! Strengthen me just one more time, O God, so I can get swift revenge 47 against the Philistines for my two eyes!” 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that supported the temple 48 and he leaned against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. 16:30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard 49 and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life. 50
Judges 14:3
Context14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our 51 people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” 52 But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, 53 because she is the right one for me.” 54
Judges 14:15-16
Context14:15 On the fourth 55 day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. 56 If you refuse, 57 we will burn up 58 you and your father’s family. 59 Did you invite us here 60 to make us poor?” 61 14:16 So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder 62 and said, “You must 63 hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men 64 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?” 65
Judges 15:1
Context15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, 66 Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. 67 He said to her father, 68 “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” 69 But her father would not let him enter.
Judges 15:11
Context15:11 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.”
Judges 16:2-3
Context16:2 The Gazites were told, 70 “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded the town 71 and hid all night at the city gate, waiting for him to leave. 72 They relaxed 73 all night, thinking, 74 “He will not leave 75 until morning comes; 76 then we will kill him!” 16:3 Samson spent half the night with the prostitute; then he got up in the middle of the night and left. 77 He grabbed the doors of the city gate, as well as the two posts, and pulled them right off, bar and all. 78 He put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill east of Hebron. 79
Judges 16:9
Context16:9 They hid 80 in the bedroom and then she said to him, “The Philistines are here, 81 Samson!” He snapped the bowstrings as easily as a thread of yarn snaps when it is put close to fire. 82 The secret of his strength was not discovered. 83
Judges 16:12-14
Context16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are here, 84 Samson!” (The Philistines were hiding in the bedroom.) 85 But he tore the ropes 86 from his arms as if they were a piece of thread.
16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair 87 into the fabric on the loom 88 and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.” 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, 89 Samson!” 90 He woke up 91 and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.
1 tn Heb “And his father went down to the woman.”
2 tn Or “[wedding] feast.”
3 tn Heb “the young men.”
4 tn Heb “and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”
5 tn Heb “to his companion who had been his attendant.”
6 tc Codex Alexandrinus (A) of the (original) LXX has the singular “to him.”
7 tn Heb “I am innocent this time from the Philistines when I do with them harm.”
8 tn Traditionally, “judged.”
9 tn Heb “in the days of the Philistines.”
10 tn Heb “When their heart was good.”
11 tn Heb “before them.”
12 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.
13 tn Heb “and look, a young lion of the lions was roaring to meet him.”
14 tn Heb “He went down.”
15 tn Heb “She was the right one in the eyes of Samson.”
16 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.
17 tn Heb “and afterward I will stop.”
18 tn Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.
19 tn Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”
20 tn See Gen 31:7; Exod 8:29 [8:25 HT]; Job 13:9; Isa 44:20; Jer 9:4 for other uses of this Hebrew word (II תָּלַל, talal), which also occurs in v. 13.
21 tn Heb “the woman.” For clarity this has been specified in the translation as “Manoah’s wife.”
22 tn The name appears to mean “sun-like” or “solar.”
23 tn Traditionally, “blessed.”
24 tn Traditionally, “foxes.”
25 tn Heb “He turned tail to tail and placed one torch between the two tails in the middle.”
26 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”).
27 tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house is founded.”
28 tn Or “said.”
29 tn Heb “and they said.” The subject of the plural verb is indefinite.
30 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Timnite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
31 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Samson) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
32 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.
33 tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”
34 tn Heb “changes.”
35 tn Or “come up against.”
36 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn Or “swear to me.”
38 tn Heb “meet [with hostility]”; “harm.” In light of v. 13, “kill” is an appropriate translation.
39 tn Or “moist.”
40 tn The word refers to a bowstring, probably made from animal tendons. See Ps 11:2; Job 30:11.
41 tn Heb “are upon you.”
42 tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
43 tn Heb “and said.”
44 tn Heb “I will go out as before.”
45 tn Heb “house.”
46 tn The Hebrew has אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה (’adonay yehovih, “Lord Yahweh”).
47 tn Heb “so I can get revenge with one act of vengeance.”
48 tn Heb “the pillars upon which the house was founded.”
49 tn Heb “he stretched out with strength.”
50 tn Heb “And the ones whom he killed in his death were many more than he killed in his life.”
51 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.
52 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?”
53 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.
54 tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”
55 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.
56 tn Heb “Entice your husband so that he might tell us the riddle.”
57 tn Heb “lest.”
58 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.
59 tn Heb “house.”
60 tc The translation assumes the Hebrew form הֲלֹם (halom, “here,” attested in five Hebrew
61 tn For discussion of this difficult form, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 364.
62 tn Heb “on him.”
63 tn Heb “only”; or “simply.”
64 tn Heb “the sons of my people.”
65 tn Heb “Should I tell you?”
66 sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.
67 tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”
68 tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).
69 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”).
70 tc Heb “To the Gazites, saying.” A verb is missing from the MT; some ancient Greek witnesses add “it was reported.”
71 tn Heb “And they surrounded.” The rest of the verse suggests that “the town” is the object, not “the house.” Though the Gazites knew Samson was in the town, apparently they did not know exactly where he had gone. Otherwise, they would could have just gone into or surrounded the house and would not have needed to post guards at the city gate.
72 tn Heb “and they lay in wait for him all night in the city gate.”
73 tn Heb “were silent.”
74 tn Heb “saying.”
75 tn The words “He will not leave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
76 tn Heb “until the light of the morning.”
77 tn Heb “And Samson lay until the middle of the night and arose in the middle of the night.”
78 tn Heb “with the bar.”
79 tn Heb “which is upon the face of Hebron.”
80 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting for her.” The grammatically singular form וְהָאֹרֵב (vÿha’orev) is collective here, referring to the rulers as a group (so also in v. 16).
81 tn Heb “are upon you.”
82 tn Heb “when it smells fire.”
83 tn Heb “His strength was not known.”
84 tn Heb “are upon you.”
85 tn Heb “And the ones lying in wait were sitting in the bedroom.”
86 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the ropes) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
87 tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.
88 tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.
89 tn Heb “are upon you.”
90 tc The MT of vv. 13b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.
91 tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
