Judges 14:16

16 So Samson's wife cried on his shoulder and said, "You hate me! You don't love me! You told a riddle to my people but didn't tell me the answer." He replied to her, "Look, I haven't even told the answer to my father and mother. Why should I tell it to you?"

Judges 14:16 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 14:16

And Samson's wife wept before him
When she came to him to get out of him the explanation of the riddle, thinking that her tears would move him to it:

and said, thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not:
another artifice she used, well knowing he could not bear to have his affection called in question, which was now very strong, as is usual with newly married persons:

thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people;
her countrymen, fellow citizens, and neighbour, and could not but be dear to her, and respected by her; so that what affected and afflicted them must have some influence upon her:

and hast not told me;
that is, the explanation of it, otherwise it is likely she had heard the riddle itself told:

and he said unto her behold, l have not told it my father nor my
mother, and shall I tell it thee?
his parents he was greatly indebted to, for whom he had the highest reverence and esteem, whose fidelity and taciturnity he had sufficient knowledge of, and yet he had not thought fit to impart it to them; how therefore could she expect to be trusted with such a secret, with whom he had not been long acquainted, not long enough to know whether she could keep it or not?

Judges 14:16 In-Context

14 He said to them, "Out of the eater there came something to eat. Out of the strong there came something sweet." For three days they couldn't tell the answer to the riddle.
15 On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Seduce your husband so he'll tell us the answer to the riddle, or else we'll set fire to you and your household. Were we invited here just to become poor?"
16 So Samson's wife cried on his shoulder and said, "You hate me! You don't love me! You told a riddle to my people but didn't tell me the answer." He replied to her, "Look, I haven't even told the answer to my father and mother. Why should I tell it to you?"
17 But she cried on his shoulder for the rest of the seven days of the feast. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her the answer, for she had nagged him. And she told her people the answer to the riddle.
18 So on the seventh day, before the sun set, the townspeople said to him, "What's sweeter than honey? What's stronger than a lion?" He replied to them, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have figured out my riddle!"
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