Judges 14

¹ Samson went down to Timnah, and there he noticed one of the daughters of the Philistines.

² He came up again and told his father and mother this. ‘At Timnah’ he said ‘I noticed one of the daughters of the Philistines. Get her for me, then, to be my wife.’

³ His father and mother said to him, ‘Is there no woman among those of your own clan or among your whole nation, for you to seek a wife among these uncircumcised Philistines?’ But Samson answered his father, ‘Get this one for me; get her, because I like her’.

⁴ His father and mother did not know that all this came from Yahweh, who was seeking an occasion for quarrelling with the Philistines; since at this time the Philistines had Israel in their power.

⁵ Samson went down to Timnah, and as he reached the vineyards of Timnah he saw a young lion coming roaring towards him.

⁶ The spirit of Yahweh seized on him, and though he had no weapon in his hand he tore the lion in pieces as a man tears a kid; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

⁷ He went down and talked to the woman, and he liked her.

⁸ Not long after this, Samson came back to marry her. He went out of his way to look at the carcase of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the lion’s body, and honey.

⁹ He took up some honey in his hand and ate it as he went along. On returning to his father and mother, he gave some to them, which they ate too, but he did not tell them he had taken it from the lion’s carcase.

¹⁰ Then he went down to the woman, and they made a feast for Samson for seven days there, for such is the custom of young men.

¹¹ But because they were frightened of him, they chose thirty companions to stay with him.

¹² Then Samson said to them, ‘Let me ask you a riddle. If you find the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.

¹³ But if you cannot find the answer, then you in your turn must give me thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.’ ‘Ask your riddle,’ they replied ‘we are listening.’

¹⁴ So he said to them: ‘Out of the eater came what is eaten, and out of the strong came what is sweet’.

¹⁵ On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife. ‘Cajole your husband into telling you the answer to the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house together. Did you invite us here to rob us?’

¹⁶ Then Samson’s wife fell on his neck in tears and said, ‘You only hate me, you do not love me. You have asked my fellow countrymen a riddle and not even told me the answer.’ He said to her, ‘I have not even told my father or mother, why should I tell you?’

¹⁷ She wept on his neck for the seven days their feast lasted. She was so persistent that on the seventh day he told her the answer, and she in turn told her fellow countrymen what the answer to the riddle was.

¹⁸ So on the seventh day, before Samson entered the bridal room, the men of the town said to him: ‘What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion?’ He retorted: ‘If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would never have guessed my riddle’.

¹⁹ Then the spirit of Yahweh seized on him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men there, took what they wore and gave the festal robes to those who had answered the riddle, then burning with rage returned to his father’s house.

²⁰ Then Samson’s wife was given to the companion who had been his best man.