Judges 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Samson sees a Philistine woman in Timnah and insists that his parents arrange the marriage, though they object; the narrator notes that this came from the LORD, who was looking for an occasion against the Philistines, who then ruled Israel. On the way, Samson kills a lion with his bare hands, and later finds honey in its carcass. At his wedding feast he sets the thirty Philistine companions a riddle about the lion and the honey; they threaten his wife until she gets the answer from him and passes it on. Samson kills thirty men in Ashkelon to pay the wager, goes home angry, and his wife is given to his companion.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • Samson went down to Timnah.
   • Samson saw a woman in Timnah.
   • The woman was one of the daughters of the Philistines.
2. 14:2
   • Samson went back up.
   • Samson told his father and his mother.
   • Samson said he had seen a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines.
   • Samson told his parents to get her for him as a wife.
3. 14:3
   • Samson's father and mother said to him: is there no woman among the daughters of your kinsmen or among all my people?
   • Samson's father and mother asked why he was going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.
   • Samson said to his father: get her for me.
   • Samson said the woman was right in his eyes.
4. 14:4
   • Samson's father and mother did not know that this was from the LORD.
   • It is stated that he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
   • It is ambiguous whether the one seeking the occasion is the LORD or Samson.
   • At that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5. 14:5
   • Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother.
   • They came as far as the vineyards of Timnah.
   • A young lion came roaring to meet Samson.
6. 14:6
   • The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon Samson.
   • Samson tore the lion apart as one tears apart a young goat.
   • Samson had nothing in his hand.
   • Samson did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
7. 14:7
   • Samson went down.
   • Samson spoke with the woman.
   • The woman was right in Samson's eyes.
8. 14:8
   • After some time Samson returned to take the woman.
   • Samson turned aside to look at the fallen carcass of the lion.
   • There was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion.
   • There was honey in the body of the lion.
9. 14:9
   • Samson scraped the honey out into his hands.
   • Samson went on his way eating the honey.
   • Samson came to his father and his mother.
   • Samson gave them some of the honey.
   • His father and mother ate the honey.
   • Samson did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the body of the lion.
10. 14:10
    • Samson's father went down to the woman.
    • Samson made a feast there.
    • Samson made the feast because that is what the young men customarily did.
11. 14:11
    • When they saw Samson, they took thirty companions.
    • The thirty companions were with Samson.
    • The verse does not identify who saw Samson and brought the thirty companions.
12. 14:12
    • Samson said to the thirty companions that he would put a riddle to them.
    • Samson said that if they could tell him the answer within the seven days of the feast and find it out, he would give them thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.
13. 14:13
    • Samson said that if they could not tell him the answer, they would give him thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.
    • They said to Samson: put forth your riddle.
    • They said they would hear the riddle.
14. 14:14
    • Samson said to them: out of the eater came something to eat.
    • Samson said to them: out of the strong came something sweet.
    • They were not able to tell the riddle for three days.
15. 14:15
    • On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife: entice your husband so that he tells us the riddle.
    • They threatened to burn her and her father's house with fire.
    • They asked whether she and her household had invited them in order to dispossess them.
    • They said: is it not so?
16. 14:16
    • Samson's wife wept before him.
    • Samson's wife said that he only hated her and did not love her.
    • Samson's wife said he had put a riddle to the sons of her people and had not told it to her.
    • Samson said to her that he had not told it to his father or his mother.
    • Samson asked whether he should tell it to her.
17. 14:17
    • Samson's wife wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted.
    • On the seventh day Samson told her the riddle.
    • Samson told her because she pressed him hard.
    • She told the riddle to the sons of her people.
18. 14:18
    • On the seventh day, before the sun went down, the men of the city said to Samson: what is sweeter than honey?
    • The men of the city said: what is stronger than a lion?
    • Samson said to them that if they had not plowed with his heifer, they would not have found out his riddle.
19. 14:19
    • The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon Samson.
    • Samson went down to Ashkelon.
    • Samson struck down thirty men of Ashkelon.
    • Samson took the clothing stripped from them.
    • Samson gave the changes of clothing to those who had told the riddle.
    • Samson's anger burned.
    • Samson went up to his father's house.
20. 14:20
    • Samson's wife was given to Samson's companion.
    • The companion had been Samson's friend.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

Timnah was a town in the low foothills between the Israelite hill country and the Philistine plain, about four miles from Samson's home at Zorah. "Went down" is literal geography: the hills drop away toward the coastal lowland, and the chapter keeps using "down" and "up" to track the slope. The Philistines were a people settled along the coast of Canaan, organized around five cities (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath), culturally distinct from the Israelites and, at this period, the dominant power over them.

14:2

Marriages were arranged between families, not by the couple, so Samson's demand that his parents "get her for me" is the normal procedure, his parents would negotiate with the woman's father and pay a bride-price. What is not normal is his choice of family.

14:3

Circumcision was the physical mark of belonging to Israel, so "the uncircumcised" is a standard scornful term for outsiders, the parents' objection is about the woman's people, not about the practice itself. "She is the one I want" translates a Hebrew phrase that literally means "she is right in my eyes"; the same wording runs through the book of Judges as a description of people acting on their own judgment.

14:4

"The LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which the King James translators, following Jewish custom, replaced with a title rather than pronouncing. The Hebrew of this verse is ambiguous about who "was seeking an occasion": grammatically it can be the LORD or Samson himself, and translations differ.

14:5

Lions still lived in the wooded hills of Canaan at this period; they disappeared from the region only much later. The mention of vineyards is a passing detail with weight for anyone who remembers chapter 13: Samson was dedicated as a Nazirite, and that vow barred him from grapes and anything else produced by the vine.

14:6

The Hebrew verb translated "came mightily upon him" means to rush or force its way onto someone; it describes a sudden seizure of power rather than a lasting condition. Tearing apart a young goat was an ordinary kitchen task, which is the point of the comparison.

14:8

A Nazirite was not to go near a dead body, so Samson turning aside to look at the carcass is a second brush with what his vow forbids. Bees nesting in a lion's remains is possible because in that dry climate scavengers and insects strip a body to bone and dried hide within months, leaving a hollow space a swarm can occupy.

14:9

Under Israelite law, touching a dead body made a person ritually unclean; a Nazirite like Samson (chapter 13) was under an even stricter ban on going near corpses at all. That is why the honey has to be scooped out in silence and why his parents are not told where it came from: they would not have eaten it.

14:10

The Hebrew word for this feast comes from the verb "to drink"; it was a week-long wedding celebration hosted by the bridegroom, with heavy drinking as a normal part of it.

14:11

These thirty "companions" are the bridegroom's attendants, supplied here by the local Philistines rather than brought by Samson: he is a stranger marrying into their town. The number, and the fact that they are provided for him, suggests they served as a watch on him as much as an honor guard.

14:12

Riddle contests with wagers attached were an ordinary entertainment at such feasts. The stake is substantial: "linen garments" (Hebrew *sadin*) were fine sheet-like wraps worn next to the skin, and a "change of garments" was a complete outer outfit of the kind kept for special occasions. Thirty of each amounts to a serious debt for thirty working men.

14:14

The King James "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh specifically, the older English sense of the word. The riddle is a description of something the hearers have not seen, so it cannot be reasoned out; that is the kind of riddle it is.

14:15

The Hebrew manuscripts read "the seventh day" here, but the ancient Greek and Syriac versions read "the fourth," which fits the sequence better, three days have already passed in verse 14, and she then weeps for the rest of the week in verse 17. Translations split between the two readings. Burning a household alive was a real form of execution in the region, and the threat is carried out in the next chapter.

14:16

"You hate me" is stronger in English than in Hebrew, where the verb also carries the sense of rejecting or setting aside: it was the standard legal word for repudiating a spouse. She is accusing him of treating her as an outsider rather than of personal loathing.

14:17

"She lay sore upon him" is 1611 English for pressing someone relentlessly, wearing them down by not letting up. It has nothing to do with pain or with lying down.

14:18

Plowing was done with a yoked animal that belonged to the farmer; the insult accuses the men of using something of Samson's, his wife, to do their work for them. It is coarse, and deliberately so.

14:19

Ashkelon was a Philistine city on the Mediterranean coast, roughly twenty-five miles from Timnah, far enough that the dead were strangers to the wedding party. Stripping the clothing from those killed in a fight was standard practice; Samson pays the wager with the garments of other Philistines.

14:20

The "companion" is the chief attendant of verse 11, the man who acted as go-between and manager of the wedding, the role later called "the friend of the bridegroom." Handing the bride to him treats Samson's departure as an abandonment of the marriage.