Judges 14:16 Komentář

The idea which this chapter gives us of Samson is not what one might have expected concerning one who, by the special designation of heaven, was a Nazarite to God and a deliverer of Israel; and yet really he was both. Here is, I. Samson's courtship of a daughter of the Philistines, and his marriage to her (Jdg 14:1-5, Jdg 14:7, Jdg 14:8). II. His conquest of a lion, and the prize he found in the carcase of it (Jdg 14:5, Jdg 14:6, Jdg 14:8, Jdg 14:9). III. Samson's riddle proposed to his companions (Jdg 14:10-14) and unriddled by the treachery of his wife (Jdg 14:15-18). IV. The occasion this gave him to kill thirty of the Philistines (Jdg 14:19) and to break off his new alliance (Jdg 14:20).

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 14 This chapter treats of Samson's courtship, and marriage of a Philistine woman, Jdg 14:1 of his meeting with a young lion as he went courting, and of his slaying it, and afterwards finding honey in it, Jdg 14:6, of a riddle which be framed out of this incident, and put to his companions at his marriage to solve, giving them seven days to do it in, with a promise of a reward, Jdg 14:10 and of their solving it by means of his wife, who got the secret from him, Jdg 14:15, which led him to slay thirty Philistines, to make good his promise of thirty sheets and changes of raiment, and to leave his newly married wife, who was given to his companion, Jdg 14:19.

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?

SAMSON DESIRES A WIFE OF THE PHILISTINES. (Jdg 14:1-5) Timnath--now Tibna, about three miles from Zorah, his birthplace. saw a woman . . . of the Philistines; and told his father and his mother, and said, . . . get her for me to wife--In the East parents did, and do in many cases still, negotiate the marriage alliances for their sons. During their period of ascendency, the Philistine invaders had settled in the towns; and the intercourse between them and the Israelites was often of such a friendly and familiar character as to issue in matrimonial relations. Moreover, the Philistines were not in the number of the seven devoted nations of Canaan [Deu 7:1-3] --with whom the law forbade them to marry.

Samson's First Transactions with the Philistines. - Jdg 14:1-9. At Tibnath, the present Tibne, an hour's journey to the south-west of Sur'a (see at Jos 15:10), to which Samson had gone down from Zorea or Mahaneh-dan, he saw a daughter of the Philistines who pleased him; and on his return he asked his parents to take her for him as a wife (לקח, to take, as in Exo 21:9).