Judges 14--Samson's Marriage

Judges 14
English Standard Version

Samson's Marriage
14 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6 Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11 As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, 13 but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15 On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 And Samson's wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”

19 And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house. 20 And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

---

Samson went to visit another city in the tribal land of Dan named Timnah (it was on the northern border of Dan near the tribal land for Judah) and even though he was probably going north to go to this city, he was going downhill towards a river valley, so that is why the text tells us he was going "down" to Timnah.  At this time, the city of Timnah was occupied by the Philistines, for it was close to the border, so it is feasible that was one of the first cities conquered and occupied by the Philistines.  Samson should not have been there as he had no business going into a Philistine town to do anything other than make war when the LORD told him it was time to do so, but this was a young man looking for a woman to marry, and none of the women in his green pasture that was "fenced in" looked attractive to him--he wanted something from the other side of the fence in the area that said "Do Not Enter," "No Trespassing," and "Danger, Keep Out," for the LORD had specifically forbidden the Israelites from taking wives from among any of the Gentile inhabitants of the land (I believe there was an exception for Proselytes--Gentiles that converted to Judaism--who were of one faith and were one people with the Jews).  There were probably hundreds of available women in his tribe of Dan (he should have married within his own family first and then within his own tribe if he could not, but definitely from within the Israelites).  The fact that he saw a Philistine woman and fell in love with her upset his parents when he told them "get this woman for me."  Why were they upset?  Because they knew the words that the angel of the LORD had spoken in the last passage we read, and Samson should not have defiled himself in this way.  Samson is just like the people thinking that he could decide right and wrong for himself and then make his parents and God bless his lustful, prideful decision that he had already made.  Samson was a man driven by his passions and emotions and they made terrible "generals" in his life that made many bad decisions for him (it's not bad that he was passionate, but bad that he let his passions be in control and determine much of his identity).

That said, the parents didn't have all the information, for the LORD was in this because this was a strategy of Sampson to get close to the Philistines so that he could attack them, for the LORD had put it in his heart to be the savior of his people.  Samson had good intentions, but sin will not accomplish the purposes of God.  It will take you further and deeper than you ever wanted to go, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay."  (A quote by the late apologist Ravi Zacharias.  We know now he was probably speaking of his own sin in his own life, but that doesn't change the truth of the statement that he made.)

He wants to take his father and mother to meet this woman that he wants to marry, so on their way to Timnah, a lion comes out from among the vineyards of that area, roaring and at Samson (I'm pretty sure he was alone when the lion came because the text tells us that he didn't tell his parents what happened, but they would have seen for themselves if the lion was attacking them and he stepped in to save them).  The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him so that he was able to tear the lion to pieces.  So then, Samson's life is saved, though he continues to pursue this Philistine woman for the text tells us she was right in his eyes (not in the LORD's eyes, and not in the eyes of Samson's parents).

Some time passed and Samson returned to take the Philistine woman as his wife.  He passed by the same way that he had gone down before and the lion that he had killed was now just a carcass in which bees had made a nest/hive and the carcass that acted as the bee's nest was full of honey.  He scraped some of the honey out of the carcass and ate it and he harvested it and took some home to give to his father and mother (but did not tell them where he got it from).  Remember his Nazarite vow that he was bound to?  He was not supposed to be in the presence of anyone or anything that died (that got broken when he killed the lion) and he was not to touch anyone or anything that was dead, for that would make him unclean (he clearly broke that when he gathered the honey out of the lion) and even though honey itself would normally be a "clean" food that the Jews could eat, the fact that it was gathered from a carcass contaminated it and made it unclean, so Samson defiled his parents in this way--his lust for something sweet and his deceit affected not only him, but also his parents who now needed to purify themselves before they would be able to worship before the LORD.

Even though his father objected to his choice, he went along with the tradition and prepared a feast for his son who was going to take this woman as his wife whether they liked it or not.  As soon as he arrive, the people of the town gave him 30 men to be his companions (probably not the best thing to now be surrounded by thirty people who would be bad influences), and Samson thought he would have some fun and ask these thirty men a riddle that they would have the week of the feast to answer it.  Anyone who could tell him the answer would receive 30 changes of clothes (this was an expensive wager and shows that Samson was proud thinking that his sin could not be found out, for that was the subject of his riddle).  In three days, no one could solve the riddle and they were embarrassed. so they went to Samson's wife to have her persuade him to tell her the answer to the riddle and they threatened her and her family if she did not help them.

Samson says that he hasn't even told his father and mother the answer to the riddle and asks why she needs to know the answer.  She wept because he would not tell her the answer until he finally broke on the seventh day of the feast and told her, and she quickly went and told the men of the city to spare herself and her family, and they returned and told the answer to Samson.  This is foreshadowing of how Samson will keep no secrets, even those that he thinks no one else needs to know, from women and how they will use this information for their own benefit even if it hurts him.

Samson now has a debt of 30 sets of garments to pay out to them and so he goes down to another town and kills 30 Philistines and gives their clothes to the men of the wedding party.  He abandoned his wife after this and went back to live in his father's house for he was angry at her and the men of the town over these events, so Samson's wife was given to his best man instead (we'll see in the next chapter that he thinks he's still married and doesn't know his wife has been given away to the best man).