Judges 14

14 ¹ Samson went down to Timnah, and there he saw a young woman, one of the daughters of the Philistines. ² When he came back up, he told his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."

³ His father and mother said to him, "Is there no woman among your relatives, or among all my people, that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me; she is the right one in my eyes."

⁴ His father and mother did not know that this was from our Father, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

⁵ So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. When they came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ Then the Spirit of our Father rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as one might tear apart a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

Samson's Riddle and the Father's Spirit

⁸ Some time later, when he returned to marry her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion. And there in the lion's body was a swarm of bees, and honey. ⁹ He scooped the honey into his hands and ate as he went along. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it too. But he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey out of the lion's carcass. ¹⁰ Then his father went down to the woman, and Samson held a feast there, as was the custom of young men. ¹¹ When the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹² Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. ¹³ But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let us hear it."

¹⁴ He said to them, "Out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet." For three days they could not solve the riddle.

¹⁵ 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?"

¹⁶ Then Samson's wife threw herself on him in tears and said, "You only hate me; you do not really love me. You have given my people a riddle, but you have not told me the answer." "I have not even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?"

¹⁷ She wept on him the whole seven days of the feast. And on the seventh day he finally told her, because she pressed him so hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. ¹⁸ 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."

¹⁹ Then the Spirit of our Father rushed upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, took their belongings, and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went back up to his father's house. ²⁰ And Samson's wife was given to one of the companions who had attended him as his best man.