Judges 14:9

9 So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

Judges 14:9 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 14:9

And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating
Josephus F11 says he took three honeycombs, he means three pieces of the honeycomb, and ate the honey as he went along to Timnath; which he might do without touching the carcass of the lion, and defiling himself thereby, which, as a Nazarite, he was more especially to be careful of:

and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat;
who went down with him to the consummation of the marriage, and from whom he had turned a little aside; and now overtook them, and to whom he gave some of his honey to eat, which, having travelled some way, might be grateful to them. The above writer takes no notice of this, but says he gave of it to the young woman whom he betrothed, when he came to her; but of that the text makes no mention:

but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of
the lion;
either lest they should scruple eating it, being taken out of such a carcass; or that the riddle, which perhaps he meditated as he came along eating the honey, might not be found out, which might more easily have been done, had this fact been known by any.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 6.)

Judges 14:9 In-Context

7 Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes.
8 When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey.
9 So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
10 Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.
11 And when the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty men to accompany him.
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