Get her for me
Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman.
When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a
Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman
among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the
uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" But Samson said to his
father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." (His parents
did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an
occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were
ruling over Israel.)
Samson kills a lion
Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As
they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came
roaring toward him. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so
that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have
torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother
what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and
he liked her.
Honey
Some time
later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at
the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which
he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he
rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he
did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's
carcass.
The riddle
Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast
there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was
given thirty companions. "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to
them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the
feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of
clothes. If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty
linen garments and thirty sets of clothes."
"Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it." He replied,
"Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet."
For three days they could not give the answer. On the fourth day,
they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the
riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to
death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"
Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You
don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you
haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even explained it to my
father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?"
She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day
he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn
explained the riddle to her people.
Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
"What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?"
Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you
would not have solved my riddle."
Payment of riddle debt
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. He went down to
Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their
belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the
riddle.
Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. And Samson's
wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding. |