The Bible

Judges Chapter 14

¹Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

²He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me [to be my] wife." ³Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" Samson said to his father, "Get her for me; for she pleases me well." ⁴But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of ForeverOne; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.

⁵Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him.

⁶The Spirit of ForeverOne came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

⁸After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.

⁹He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

¹⁰His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.

¹¹When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹²Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; ¹³but if you can't declare it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing." They said to him, "Put out your riddle, that we may hear it." ¹⁴He said to them, "Out of the eater came out food. Out of the strong came out sweetness." They couldn't in three days declare the riddle.

¹⁵On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Is it not [so]?" ¹⁶Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "You just hate me, and don't love me. You have put out a riddle to the children of my people, and haven't told it me." He said to her, "Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?" ¹⁷She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and on the seventh day, he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people.

¹⁸The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found out my riddle." ¹⁹The Spirit of ForeverOne came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

²⁰But Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, who had been his friend.