What Does Judges 14:14 Mean?

(14) **Out of the strong came forth sweetness.**—The antithesis is not perfect, but we cannot strain the word “strong” to mean “bitter,” as the LXX. and Syriac do. Josephus gives the riddle in the form,”the all-devouring having generated sweet food from itself, though itself far from sweet” (*Antt. v.* 8, § 6). The whole of Samson’s life has been described by Ewald as “a charming poetic picture, in which the interspersed verses gleam forth like the brightest pearls in a circlet.” It must be confessed that the riddle was hardly a fair one, for the event to which it alluded was most unusual, and no one could have guessed such a riddle without some clue; for— “ ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb In the dead carrion.” Shakespeare: *Henry V., *ii. 4. Cassel quotes a curious parallel from the legends of North Germany. The judges offer a woman her husband’s life if she can make a riddle which they cannot guess. On her way to the court she had found the carcase of a horse in which a bird had built its nest and hatched six young ones, which she took away. Her riddle was (I venture rudely to translate the rude old lines):— “As hitherwards on my way I sped, I took the living out of the dead, Six were thus of the seventh made quit:— To rede my riddle, my lords, ‘tis fit.” The judges failed, and the husband was spared (Mullen-hof, *Sagen, *p. 506). **In three days.**—It is hard to see why this is mentioned if it was only on the *seventh *day (Judges 14:15) that they tried the unfair means of inducing Samson’s wife to reveal the secret. Bishop Hervey conjectures, with much probability, that we should read *shesheth *“six,” for *shelsheth, *“four.” The LXX. and Syriac read “on the fourth day,” and ד (7) may easily have been confused with ד (4).