Judges 14

If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle

In Judges 14, Samson wants to take a wife from the Philistines, and proceeds to have a feast for his wedding. He presents a riddle to his Philistine guests that they cannot solve, but Samson’s betrothed bride reveals the answer to the Philistines. Samson leaves her in fury, and she is given to another man.

Bible Passage:

14:1 Then Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. ² And he 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.” ³ Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me; for she is right in my eyes.” ⁴ But his father and his mother did not know that it was of YAHWEH; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time, the Philistines had rule over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson went down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah. And, behold, a young lion roared against him. ⁶ The Spirit of YAHWEH came mightily upon him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down, and talked with the woman, and she was right in the eyes of Samson. ⁸ After 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. ⁹ He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there; for so the young men used to do. ¹¹ And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought 30 companions to be with him. ¹² So Samson said to them, “Let me now put forth a riddle to you. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes; ¹³ but if you cannot declare it to me, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes.” They said to him, “Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.” ¹⁴ And he said to them,

“From the eater, went out food,
From the strong, went out sweet.”

And they could not declare the riddle in three days.

¹⁵ It came to pass on the seventh day, that 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?” ¹⁶ So Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “You hate me, and do not love me. You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and have not told it to me.” He said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father, nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” ¹⁷ And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted. It came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. ¹⁸ So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
You would not have found out my riddle.”

¹⁹ And the Spirit of YAHWEH came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and smote 30 men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothes to them that declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. ²⁰ But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend.

Reflection:

Samson’s freedom to do as he pleases because of his strength and lack of fear is a really interesting aspect of his narratives. Israel is at this point a vassal state of Philistia, like the Judeans will say in the next chapter, they are ruled over by the Philistines and we know they have been for 40 years. Yet, Samson roams into Philistine cities and is willing to take a Philistine wife and has no qualms about doing whatever he wants to in places that they control as a subservient Israelite. He seems to be a singularly rebellious man, amongst a whole nation of people who have accepted their lot as slaves to another nation. He is a prototype of the lone warrior, unbowed and unafraid of anything.

Questions and Answers:

Verse 5: Can you explain the significance of the lion? [Monique, 33]

The significance of the lion goes back to what we talked about with the Nazirite vow. We tend to focus on the great act of strength, which is obviously something valid and worth noticing. But the next part of the story Samson explicitly breaks the Nazirite vow. For him to eat out of the lion’s dead body breaks what we know to be part of the ritual purity of Nazirites. They are not meant to touch any dead thing or be around death. He literally eats something out of a dead wild animal. If you read the dietary laws for the Israelites in Leviticus 11, lions are not clean animals because they do not have a split hoof and chew the cud. Therefore, they are not animals that could be eaten anyway. Beyond that, even animals that were clean were not supposed to be eaten if they were found dead or torn by wild beasts according to Leviticus 22.

So even if you allow for the fact that the prohibition on touching dead things or being around death was never mentioned by the angel of YAHWEH to Manoah and his wife, he did say that their son was never supposed “to eat any unclean thing.” Eating from the lion’s carcass is explicitly breaking the Nazirite vow and we are supposed to notice that Samson is flippant about keeping his vow.

Verse 8: What’s a carcass? [Elisha, 8]

In English, a carcass is a term used to refer to a dead body, particularly that of an animal. We tend to use corpse when talking about the dead body of a human. In Hebrew, the word for carcass is “mapelet,” coming from the verb “naphal,” which means “to fall.” So the word “mapelet” literally means “a fallen thing.”

Verse 18: Are they asking literally “what’s sweeter” and “what’s stronger?” [Gwendolyn, 10]

No, that’s the framing of their answer to his riddle. They are approaching Samson like they have figured it out themselves. They don’t come up and honestly admit that they asked his wife and she told them. They act as if they have finally puzzled out the answer to the riddle. Like they came to the conclusion that nothing is stronger than a lion, and nothing is sweeter than honey. So the “what” used here isn’t asking a literal question, but more of an implied, “What [could possibly be] sweeter than honey? And what [could possibly be] stronger than a lion?”

Verse 18: Was this the answer to the riddle? [Elisha, 8]

Yes, this was the answer to the riddle. The answer is some iteration of honey from the lion’s carcass. This riddle is based on Samson’s personal experience which is exactly why Samson knew there was no way anyone would know the answer to it. He is sure that he is the only person who had found that carcass since he is the one who killed it, and he has not even told his parents about the encounter. Since the only person he has ever told is his new wife, he knows they found out the answer through her.

Verse 18: How is Samson sweeter than honey? [Gwendolyn, 10]

I understand why you are asking this, it’s still because of the “what’s stronger than a lion” part. We know that Samson is stronger than a lion because he killed that lion with his bare hands. So how can he be sweeter than honey for the other part of the answer? But Samson himself isn’t related to the answer of the riddle he poses at all. In fact, he never mentions in the text that he killed the lion. We know it because we have read the narrator’s rendition of what happened to Samson. But there is no indication anywhere that any other person knows that Samson did that. The results of what happened to the lion carcass that was left out in the open is the answer to Samson’s riddle. It’s about the honey being found inside the lion’s carcass, not Samson’s Spirit-endowed strength in killing the lion.

Verse 20: Why was Samson’s wife given to his friend? [Gwendolyn, 10]

Judges 15 will answer this, but the woman’s father thought that Samson hated her, because he leaves his feast, and even leaves Timnah, and goes back up to the region of Dan where his father’s house was located. Why he thinks Samson hated her is never explicitly said, but probably because he thought the betrayal of the riddle enraged Samson so much that he abandoned her as his wife. It’s worth noting that Samson’s marriage is never consummated by them sleeping together as man and wife. He just leaves, and at the beginning of chapter 15, it seems he is going back for that specific purpose, to finally have sex with his new bride. Then he finds out that she was given to another man.

Recording of the Passage: