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Judges 14:14-20

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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[a] day they said to Samson's wife, 1"Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, 2lest 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, 3"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 4she 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 5And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to 6Ashkelon 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 7his companion, 8who had been his best man.
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Judges 14:14-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 14

This chapter treats of Samson's courtship, and marriage of a Philistine woman, Jud 14:1-5 of his meeting with a young lion as he went courting, and of his slaying it, and afterwards finding honey in it, Jud 14:6-9, of a riddle which be framed out of this incident, and put to his companions at his marriage to solve, giving them seven days to do it in, with a promise of a reward, Jud 14:10-14 and of their solving it by means of his wife, who got the secret from him, Jud 14:15-18, which led him to slay thirty Philistines, to make good his promise of thirty sheets and changes of raiment, and to leave his newly married wife, who was given to his companion, Jud 14:19,20.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 8

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.