Judges 14

14 ¹ Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman there, one of the Philistine women. ² He went up and told his father and mother, "I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."

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

⁴ His father and mother did not know this was from our Father, who sought a reason against the Philistines, who then ruled Israel.

⁵ Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. At Timnah's vineyards, a young lion came roaring at him. ⁶ The Spirit of our Father rushed on him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands like a young goat, but told neither his father nor mother what he'd done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

⁸ Later, returning to marry her, he turned aside to the lion's carcass — inside was a swarm of bees, and honey. ⁹ He scooped the honey into his hands and ate as he walked. Reaching his father and mother, he gave them some, and they ate. But he did not tell them he had scooped it from the lion's carcass. ¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson held a feast there, as young men did. ¹¹ When the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹² Samson told them, "Let me pose you a riddle. Solve it within the seven feast days and I'll give you thirty linen wraps and thirty sets of clothes." ¹³ But if you can't answer, give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." They said, "Tell your riddle; let us hear it."

¹⁴ He said, "From the eater came food; from the strong, sweetness." For three days they couldn't solve the riddle.

¹⁵ On the fourth day they told Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle, or we'll burn you and your father's house. Did you invite us here to rob us?"

¹⁶ Samson's wife wept on him: "You only hate me; you don't love me. You gave my people a riddle but haven't told me its answer." He said, "I haven't told my father or mother, so why tell you?"

¹⁷ She cried on him the seven days of their feast, and on the seventh he told her, because she pressed him. Then she told the riddle to her people. ¹⁸ On the seventh day, before sunset, the townsmen told him, "What's sweeter than honey? What's stronger than a lion?" Samson answered, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you'd never have solved my riddle."

¹⁹ Then the Spirit of our Father rushed on him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their belongings, and gave their clothes to those who solved the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. ²⁰ Samson's wife was given to his companion, the one who had been his best man.