“Son of man, offer a riddle, ¹  and tell a parable to the house of Israel.

I will learn a song that imparts wisdom; I will then sing my insightful song to the accompaniment of a harp. ¹ 

Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, ¹  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ²  of clothes.

But if you cannot solve it, ¹  you will give me thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.” They said to him, “Let us hear your riddle.” ² 

She cried on his shoulder ¹  until the party was almost over. ²  Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she had nagged him so much. ³  Then she told the young men the solution to the riddle. ⁴ 

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.

So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder ¹  and said, “You must ²  hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men ³  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?” ⁴ 

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, ¹  you would not have solved my riddle!”

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 

On the fourth ¹  day they said to Samson’s bride, “Trick your husband into giving the solution to the riddle. ²  If you refuse, ³  we will burn up ⁴  you and your father’s family. ⁵  Did you invite us here ⁶  to make us poor?” ⁷ 

For now we see in a mirror indirectly, ¹  but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.

On ¹  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ²  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

“But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹  and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²  ‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³  (How long will this go on?) ⁴  – he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵ 

This calls for wisdom: ¹  Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, ²  and his number is 666. ³ 

But ¹  the angel said to me, “Why are you astounded? I will interpret ²  for you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

“Say to the rebellious house of Israel: ¹  ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ ²  Say: ‘See here, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem ³  and took her king and her officials prisoner and brought them to himself in Babylon.