Judges 14

Common English Bible

Samson’s marriage to a Philistine woman

14 Samson traveled down to Timnah. While he was in Timnah, a Philistine woman caught his eye. ² He went back home and told his father and mother, “A Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye; now get her for me as a wife!”

³ But his father and mother replied to him, “Is there no woman among your own relatives or among all our people that you have to go get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

Yet Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she’s the one I want!” ⁴ His father and mother didn’t know that the Lord was behind this. He was looking for an opening with the Philistines, because they were ruling over Israel at that time.

⁵ Then Samson traveled down to Timnah with his father and mother. When he came to the vineyards in Timnah, suddenly a lone young lion came roaring to meet him. ⁶ The Lord’s spirit rushed over him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one might tear apart a young goat. But he didn’t tell his father or mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he traveled down and talked with the woman; she was the one Samson wanted.

⁸ After a while, he came back again to marry her. He turned aside to look at the lion’s remains, and there was a swarm of bees with honey inside the lion’s skeleton. ⁹ He scooped the honey into his hands, eating it as he continued along. When he got to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it too. But he didn’t tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s skeleton.

¹⁰ His father traveled down to the woman, and Samson put on a feast there, as was the custom for young men. ¹¹ When the townspeople saw him, they selected thirty companions to be with him. ¹² Then Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you can figure it out and tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I’ll give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes. ¹³ But if you can’t tell me the answer, then it’s you who have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.”

So they replied to him, “Tell your riddle; let’s hear it.”

¹⁴ He said to them,

For three days they couldn’t tell the answer to the riddle. ¹⁵ On the fourth^[a] day they said to Samson’s wife, “Seduce your husband so he’ll tell us the answer to the riddle, or else we’ll set fire to you and your household. Were we invited here just to become poor?”

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife cried on his shoulder and said, “You hate me! You don’t love me! You told a riddle to my people but didn’t tell me the answer.”

He replied to her, “Look, I haven’t even told the answer to my father and mother. Why should I tell it to you?” ¹⁷ But she cried on his shoulder for the rest of the seven days of the feast. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her the answer, for she had nagged him. And she told her people the answer to the riddle. ¹⁸ So on the seventh day, before the sun set, the townspeople said to him,

He replied to them,

¹⁹ Then the Lord’s spirit rushed over him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty of their men, stripped them of their gear, and gave the sets of clothes to the ones who had told the answer to the riddle. In anger, he went back up to his father’s household. ²⁰ And Samson’s wife married one of those who had been his companions.