Judges 14 Study Notes

14:10-13 Having broken his Nazirite vow by deliberately touching the carcass of the lion, Samson then proceeded to despise it further by hosting a drinking party (the Hebrew word translated feast comes from the word “to drink”) for his new pagan friends. The thirty men were probably security forces sent to keep an eye on this imposing foreigner. As the party progressed, Samson proposed a riddle that would cost every one of his thirty companions a suit of clothing—an outer garment and a tunic—if they lost and would cost him thirty suits if they were able to solve it before the end of the feast.

14:14-15 Without the interpretive key of Samson’s experience with the lion, his riddle was unsolvable. On the fourth day, realizing this, the young men blackmailed Samson’s betrothed wife. They feared that Samson’s riddle would rob them or, more precisely, “dispossess” them. The verb dispossess is often used of the Israelite conquests in the land, which highlights the Lord’s hand in this dispute.

14:16-17 The woman then emotionally blackmailed Samson, claiming that if he would not tell her the answer to his riddle, then he did not love her. Their exchange highlights a key issue. She referred to the Philistines as my people, while he regarded his parents as the primary circle of his intimacy. They belonged to two different peoples, with naturally opposed loyalties. In the end, under the pressure of her nagging, Samson relented.

14:18-20 The Philistines’ answer not only solved Samson’s riddle, but spoke of the current situation at the wedding: though Samson had proved himself stronger than a lion, the sweetness of a woman’s love was more powerful still. Samson’s response is another miniature poem. As well as a denunciation of their cheating, this reply was also a sharp insult to his Philistine bride. Samson vented his anger by killing thirty Philistines in Ashkelon to acquire the suits of clothing necessary to pay his debt. This act was triggered by the Spirit of the Lord coming on him powerfully, which shows that his act of personal vengeance was used by the Lord to begin to execute judgment against the Philistines. Samson returned to his father’s house in Zorah, still angry, while his Philistine father-in-law gave his daughter to one of the thirty young men who had been watching Samson.