Judges 14:5

(5)

The vineyards of Timnath. — All this part of Palestine, and especially the neighbouring valley of Sorek (Judges 16:4), was famous for its vines (Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21). The hills of Judah, which at that time were laboriously terraced up to the summit, like the hill-sides of the Italian valleys, were peculiarly favourable for vineyards (Genesis 49:11). Now they are bleak and bare by the denudation of centuries, but might by labour be once more rendered beautiful and fruitful.

A young lion. — Literally, a lion of lions, like “a kid of goats” (Judges xiii, 15). That lions and other wild beasts were still common in Palestine, we see, both from the direct statement of the fact (1 Kings 10:19; 2 Kings 17:25, &c.), from the incidents which show it to have been so (1 Samuel 17:34; 2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Kings 13:25; 1 Kings 20:36), and from the names Arieh (2 Kings 15:6), Lebaoth (“lionesses,” Joshua 15:32), Beth Lebaoth (Joshua 19:6), Shaalbim (“jackals”), Zeboim (“hyenas”), &c.