Samson's Riddle and Wedding

Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young Philistine woman. Returning home, he told his parents, 'I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.'

His parents were distressed. 'Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?' They did not know that the Lord was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines, who were ruling over Israel at that time. Yet their concern was valid—God's people were not to intermarry with pagans. Samson's desire was already leading him to compromise his calling.

As Samson and his parents traveled to Timnah, a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as easily as one might tear a young goat. Yet he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done—the first hint of secrecy that would mark his life.

Some time later, when Samson returned to marry the woman, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. Inside it was a swarm of bees and honey. He scooped out the honey and ate it, sharing some with his parents—but again, he did not tell them it came from a lion's carcass. This was significant: as a Nazirite, Samson was not to touch anything dead. Already he was violating his vow, choosing his appetites over his consecration.

At the wedding feast, which lasted seven days according to custom, the Philistines assigned thirty companions to be with Samson. 'Let me tell you a riddle,' Samson said. 'If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you cannot tell me the answer, you must give me the same.'

'Tell us your riddle,' they said.

Samson's riddle came from his secret experience with the lion: 'Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.' For three days they could not solve it.

On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, 'Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?'

Faced with this terrible threat, Samson's bride turned to tears and manipulation. For the remainder of the seven days, she wept before Samson. 'You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer.'

Samson resisted at first. 'I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?' But she continued pressing him day after day, nagging him until he was tired to death. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: 'What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?'

Samson knew immediately what had happened. 'If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle,' he said bitterly.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. In his anger, he went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything, and gave the clothing to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father's home without his bride.

His wife was given to one of the companions who had attended him at the feast. The marriage that began in compromise ended in betrayal and violence—a pattern that would repeat itself in Samson's life. Yet even in his failure, God was using Samson's anger against the Philistines to begin fulfilling the prophecy that he would 'take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.' Divine purpose was working through human weakness, though the cost would be high.