Desire, a Riddle, and a Compromised Beginning

“Went down” is yarad, and the verb keeps returning in Samson’s account: down to Timnath, down to the vineyards, down to the woman, down to Ashkelon, down to the rock Etam. Timnah, probably Tel Batash in the Sorek valley, was a Philistine town a few miles from Zorah.

Marriages were arranged by parents. Shechem spoke to his father Hamor in almost the same words: “Get me this damsel to wife” (Genesis 34:4). Samson reports what he saw and makes a demand in one breath.

“Uncircumcised” was Israel’s term of contempt for the Philistines, as when David asks, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine?” (1 Samuel 17:26). “She pleaseth me well” is literally “she is right in my eyes”, the phrase that becomes the book’s closing verdict: “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (17:6; 21:25).

“Occasion” is toanah, a pretext, a word found only here; a related verb appears when the king of Israel says of Naaman’s letter, “see how he seeketh a quarrel against me” (2 Kings 5:7). The parents do not know that God is using the marriage to start a quarrel.

The Nazirite was to eat nothing from the vine (Numbers 6:3–4), and Samson meets the lion “in the vineyards of Timnath”. “A young lion” is a lion in its prime; “roared against him” is the sound of a lion attacking its prey.

“Came mightily” is tsalach, to rush upon, the verb used when the Spirit came on Saul (1 Samuel 10:6; 11:6) and on David (1 Samuel 16:13). David too killed a lion that took a lamb (1 Samuel 17:34–36). “Nothing in his hand” means bare handed.

Only now does Samson actually speak with the woman; before, he had only seen her. She is never named, in this chapter or the next, and the verse repeats that she “pleased Samson well”, the measure he has used from the start.

“After a time” is literally “after days”, which can mean a year, perhaps the interval between betrothal and wedding. “Turned aside to see” are the words of Moses at the bush, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight” (Exodus 3:3). Herodotus (5.114) tells of bees making a hive in a dried skull.

Leviticus 11:27 declared unclean any animal “that goeth upon his paws”, and made anyone who touched its carcass unclean. A lion walks on paws. Samson scoops the honey with his palms and gives his parents food from an unclean carcass without telling them.

“Feast” is mishteh, a drinking feast, from shatah, to drink. A Nazirite sworn off wine hosts a week of drinking at his own wedding. “So used the young men to do” marks it as the custom of the country.

The thirty companions are the bridegroom’s attendants. The Hebrew “when they saw him” is close to “when they feared him”, and some Greek manuscripts read that way: the Philistines assigned thirty men to keep an eye on a dangerous guest.

“Riddle” is chidah, the word for the “hard questions” with which the queen of Sheba tested Solomon (1 Kings 10:1). “Sheets” are fine linen wraps, and “change of garments” festal robes, like the sets Joseph gave his brothers (Genesis 45:22). The stakes are thirty of each.

The terms put Samson alone against thirty: if they fail, each man pays him one set; if they succeed, he must pay thirty sets on his own. The companions accept at once, sure that thirty heads can beat one.

The riddle is a two line poem: “out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness”. It rests on something only Samson had seen, which makes it unfair as a riddle. “Meat” means food.

“Entice” is patti, to coax or seduce, the verb the Philistine lords will use to Delilah: “Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth” (16:5). “To take that we have” is literally “to dispossess us”, yarash, the conquest verb. The Greek reads “the fourth day” here, easing the timing with verse 14.

Delilah will use nearly the same complaint: “How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?” (16:15). Samson answers that he has not told even his father and mother, a fact the reader knows includes the secret of the honey.

“She lay sore upon him” is hetsiqathu, she pressed him hard, the verb used again of Delilah, “she pressed him daily with her words” (16:16). The first woman wins his secret in seven days; the second will take longer and win more.

“Before the sun went down” uses charsah, a rare word for the sun. Some scholars suggest a small change of letters, reading “before he went into the bridal chamber”, which would mean the answer came just in time. “Plowed with my heifer” accuses them of using his bride as their draught animal.

Ashkelon, one of the five Philistine cities, lay on the coast more than twenty miles from Timnah; Samson goes far from the wedding town to find his victims. “Spoil” is chalitsot, garments stripped from the dead, the word used when Abner told Asahel to take a man’s armour (2 Samuel 2:21).

“His companion, whom he had used as his friend” describes the best man, the bridegroom’s friend who managed the wedding; John the Baptist calls himself “the friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). The man trusted to stand beside Samson is the one given his wife.