Judges 14:1-20

Life Without Law

Judges

Philip Smith

Chapter 14

v1 Samson went to Timnah. There he saw a young woman, who was a *Philistine. v2 When he returned, he spoke to his father and mother. ‘I have seen a woman in Timnah. She is a *Philistine. Arrange for me to marry her.’ v3 His father and mother answered him. ‘Can you not find a suitable woman among your relatives? Or can you not find one among our own people? Must you go to marry a dirty *Philistine?’ But Samson said to his father, ‘Get her for me. She is the one that I want.’

v4 (His parents did not know that the *Lord was working in this. The *Lord wanted an opportunity to attack the *Philistines. At that time they were ruling over *Israel’s people.)

v5 Samson went to Timnah with his mother and father. They approached the fields where the *grapes grew. Suddenly a young lion came towards him. It made a loud noise. v6 The *Lord’s Spirit came upon Samson in power. He tore the lion into pieces as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. v7 Then he went down and he talked to the woman. He liked her. v8 Later he returned to marry her. On the way, he turned off the path. He turned off it to see the lion’s body. In it, there were a lot of bees and some honey. (Bees are insects that make honey.) v9 He picked up the honey in his hands. And he ate it as he went along. When he met his father and mother, he gave them some honey. They ate it also. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s body.

Samson was a man that did unusual things. He wanted a woman that was a *Philistine as his wife. There was a law that *Israel’s people must not marry people from other nations. Usually parents arranged marriages. Samson caused his parents a shock when he wanted to marry a ‘dirty’ person. (They considered the *Philistines as if they were ‘dirty’. This was because the *Philistines were ‘uncircumcised’. This is what the original word means here. ‘Uncircumcised’ means that nobody had removed the skin from the *sexual part in the male body.) Samson did not obey his parents’ wishes. The marriage was a different type from what was usual. In this case, the bride remained with her own family. The husband came as a guest and he brought presents. (Look at Judges 15:1-2.) The children would belong to the mother’s family. The writer does not describe the woman that Samson wanted to marry as a *virgin. Perhaps she was a widow or perhaps she had had a divorce. The writer shows that God even uses people’s failures in order to perform his plans.

Samson went to arrange the marriage. On the way, he killed a lion.

Because he was a *Nazirite, he had promised not to touch a dead body. He probably did not think that the promise was important. He touched the body and he ate the honey. This meant that he did not obey the promise then.

v10 His father went down to see the woman. Samson gave a special large meal, as bridegrooms usually did. v11 When he came, the *Philistines gave him 30 young men as companions. v12 ‘Let me ask you a difficult question’, Samson said to them. ‘Give me the answer during the 7 days when we are having the special meal. If you can give me the answer, I will give you 30 pieces of cloth and 30 sets of clothes. v13 If you cannot give me the answer, you must give me 30 pieces of cloth and 30 sets of clothes.’ ‘Tell us your difficult question’, they said. ‘Let us hear it.’ v14 He replied, ‘Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.’ For three days, they could not give the answer.

v15 On the fourth (4th) day they spoke to Samson’s wife. ‘Persuade your husband to tell you the answer. Otherwise, we will burn you and your father’s house. We suppose that you did not invite us here to make us poor.’ v16 So Samson’s wife wept and she said, ‘You hate me. You do not really love me. You have given my people a difficult question. You have not told me the answer.’ ‘I have not explained it to my father and mother’, he replied. ‘So I certainly should not tell you.’ v17 So she cried every day, until he told her on the 7th day. He told her because she made his life miserable. Then she went and she told her people. v18 Before the sun set on the 7th day, the men in the town answered him. ‘Nothing is sweeter than honey. Nothing is stronger than a lion.’ Samson replied, ‘If you had not ploughed with my cow, you would not know the answer now.’

It is not clear why Samson’s father came to see the woman. Some Bible students think that he tried to stop the marriage. People organised the meal at the bride’s house. This was unusual. It was usual to have it at the bridegroom’s house. It lasted 7 days. The bride and bridegroom would not usually have sex until after the meal had ended. In that way, they would make the marriage complete. The *Philistines gave a group of 30 men to Samson. These men would be his companions during the meal. Also, they had to keep people out that the hosts had not invited.

Then Samson made a bet. (A ‘bet’ is an arrangement to risk a certain amount of money or property. The people may gain this amount or they may lose it. They try to guess what the result will be in a particular situation. What will happen is not certain. If a person guesses right, he or she can have the money or property.)

The bet was about the answer to a difficult question. ‘Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.’ The bet was for two things. The first thing was pieces of delicate cloth. People wore these as clothes next to the skin. The second thing was sets of clothes. People used such clothes for special events like weddings. The men did not know the answer. Then they said that they intended to do something bad to Samson’s wife. They would do it, if she did not persuade him to tell them the answer. Finally, after much difficulty and tears, she managed to persuade him. She told the men. Then the men came to Samson and they told him the answer. This was his reply. ‘If you had not ploughed with my cow, you would not know the answer now.’ For ‘cow’, the writer uses the word ‘heifer’ (a female cow). Usually people did not use female cows to plough. Samson was using a special description here. He meant that they had been asking his wife for the answer.

v19 Then God’s Spirit came on him in power. He went down to Ashkelon and he killed 30 men. Then he took their possessions. He gave their clothes to those that had explained the difficult question. He was very angry and he went to his father’s house. v20 They gave Samson’s wife to the friend that had helped him at his wedding.

He went to Ashkelon, which was 23 miles away. Then nobody would connect him with what he intended to do. There he killed 30 men and he took their best clothes. This was like the final *destruction that would happen at Gaza (chapter 16). It was too little and it was too late. Samson should have done something like this many years before. He liked action. But he did not understand what things were important. However, God’s Spirit worked in him. There was a reason for this. In Judges 14:4, ‘the *Lord wanted an opportunity to attack the *Philistines’. Samson established friendly relations with the *Philistines, although they were enemies. He showed what *Israel’s people were like. These two groups of people were very close together. Even the *Lord could not separate them. But Samson had an angry disagreement with the *Philistines. In this, we can see something that made Israel’s people different. God used Samson’s sin. (Sin is something that breaks God’s rules.) He used it in order to cause the argument with the *Philistines. God also gave Samson his strength. (People cannot explain this strength by the rules of science.) Then God gave him the first opportunities to use it. The young man discovered his skill when he fought against the lion. He discovered the purpose of the skill when he killed the 30 men at Ashkelon. The father of Samson’s wife did not want her to suffer shame. So he arranged to marry her to Samson’s best man. (The ‘best man’ is the man that helps the bridegroom at a wedding.)

Philistines ~ a group of people that came from Egypt. They came to live on the coast between Egypt and Gaza. They lived in the plain that was there.
Lord ~ a name for God. It means that he is the master, the ruler over all. Also, people often use this word to translate Yahweh, a very special Hebrew name for God.

Yahweh ~ the name of God. It means ‘I am what I am’. Or it can mean ‘the same always’.
Hebrew ~ the Hebrew people were Abraham’s descendants; and they spoke a language called Hebrew.
descendants ~ members of your family that are born and live after you.
Israel ~ the nation that consisted of Jacob’s descendants; the country where they lived; another name for Jacob.

descendants ~ members of your family that are born and live after you.
grape ~ juicy green or purple fruit that grows on the branches of a vine. People use this fruit to make wine.

vine ~ a plant that climbs. Its fruit is the grape.
sexual ~ when something has a connection with a person’s male or female parts.
virgin ~ a woman who has not had sex with a man.
Nazirite ~ someone who made a special promise to God not to do certain things.
destruction ~ when someone has damaged something so badly that it does not exist any more.