Samson’s bride was then given to his best man. ¹ 

If her father refuses to give her to him, he must pay money for the bride price of virgins.

Princesses ¹  are among your honored guests, ²  your bride ³  stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir. ⁴ 

You have stolen my heart, ¹  my sister, ²  my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, ³  with one jewel of your necklace.

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine; the fragrance of your perfume is better than any spice!

Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride, honey and milk are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

The Lover to His Beloved: You are a locked garden, ¹  my sister, my bride; you are an enclosed spring, a sealed-up fountain.

As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons ¹  will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ¹  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ²  He said to her father, ³  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ⁴  But her father would not let him enter.

You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, ¹  and I’ll give ²  whatever you ask ³  of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

Look all around you! ¹  All of them gather to you. As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry; you will put them on as if you were a bride.

Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels? Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can even be counted.

Gather the people; sanctify an assembly! Gather the elders; gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom and the bride from her private quarters. ¹ 

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 

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 

The Philistines asked, ¹  “Who did this?” They were told, ²  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ³  took Samson’s ⁴  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ⁵ 

Saul replied, “Here is what you should say to David: ‘There is nothing that the king wants as a price for the bride except a hundred Philistine foreskins, so that he can be avenged of his ¹  enemies.’” (Now Saul was thinking that he could kill David by the hand of the Philistines.)

The Lover to His Beloved: I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk! The Poet to the Couple: ¹  Eat, friends, and drink! ²  Drink freely, O lovers!

I ¹  will greatly rejoice ²  in the Lord; I will be overjoyed because of my God. ³  For he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ⁴  I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would; I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ⁵