_The wedding at Timnah_ Samson asks his parents to arrange a marriage for him in the usual way; but finding them unwilling, he takes the matter into his own hands. There was another way of gaining the bride, and this he determines to adopt. Among the Hebrews, as the present story shews, and among t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Timnah_ now Tibneh, about 4 m. S.W. of Zorah, on the low hills of the Shephçlah: hence _went down_is the word for reaching it from Samson's house (Judges 14:1_; Judges 14:5; Judges 14:7; Judges 14:10_), and _go up_, for the journey in the opposite direction, Judges 14:2 and 1 Samuel 29:9. According... [ Continue Reading ]
Samson at first behaves as a dutiful son, and consults both parents about his marriage. It is hardly necessary to strike out the reference to his mother.... [ Continue Reading ]
It was the father's business to arrange a marriage and the amount of the dowry, e.g. Genesis 24:2 ff; Genesis 34:4; Genesis 38:6. Hence the father alone is named in clause _b_; in cl. _a_the words _and his mother_look like an insertion to harmonize with Judges 14:2: note _my people_; _said_is singul... [ Continue Reading ]
It is not actually said that Manoah refused, but the sequel (Judges 14:5) in its original form implies that he did. _he sought an occasion_ The subject is Jehovah, cf. Joshua 11:20; _an occasion_, i.e. for a quarrel, cf. 2 Kings 5:7. The Philistines had always been the aggressors; an act of retalia... [ Continue Reading ]
_and his father and his mother_ A later addition made for the purpose of conforming Samson's marriage to the ordinary type, in which the preliminaries were arranged by the parents. The encounter with the lion and the interview with the woman clearly shew that Samson was alone. _a young lion_ The li... [ Continue Reading ]
_came mightily upon him_ Cf. Judges 14:19, Jdg 15:14, 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 11:6; the expression denotes a sudden rush of superhuman power. _and he rent him … a kid rent him as_ A MAN RENDS _a kid_; the verb only here and in Leviticus 1:17, where it is used of the ritual _learing a... [ Continue Reading ]
Samson acts on his own account; the parents remain at home, and take no part in the arrangements.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he returned_ i.e. to Zorah; the woman stays in her father's house, as was the rule in a _mot-a_marriage. The natural sense of the narrative is destroyed by the expression _to take her_, i.e. to marry her (a single word in the Hebr.); obviously it has been inserted. The marriage does not begin till... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he took it … had taken_ The word, which occurs only here (? in Jeremiah 5:31), is used in the Talmud for taking honey out of the hive, detaching bread from the sides of the oven; so we may render _he scraped off_the honey into his palms. It is one of the household words of old Hebrew which rare... [ Continue Reading ]
_his father_ Again, an insertion. If the father was out of place in Judges 14:5, he is more impossible at this stage. Originally the text ran _and he went down … and made_, or _and Samson went down … and made_. _a feast_ The LXX adds _of seven days_, perhaps merely an inference from Judges 14:12. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_when they saw him_ With a slight change LXX. cod. A etc. read _because they feared him; they_must be the Philistines, though not mentioned in the context. The sight of Samson, _or_their fear of him, induced the Philistines to procure thirty _companions_(cf. Judges 14:20), nominally as friends and s... [ Continue Reading ]
_a riddle_ This is the only specimen in the O.T. of a riddle in our sense (1 Kings 10:1); elsewhere the word means a sententious _maxim_Proverbs 1:6, or a _parable_Ezekiel 17:2. _the seven days_ Cf. Genesis 29:22; Genesis 29:27, Tob 8:19 f., Judges 11:19. Similarly among the early Arabs (Benzinger,... [ Continue Reading ]
The loss of the wager would leave the thirty companions practically naked; no wonder they express themselves strongly in Judges 14:15!... [ Continue Reading ]
The riddle is cast into poetical form; the verse consists of two members with three beats in each. The structure of the retort in Judges 14:18 is the same.... [ Continue Reading ]
_on the seventh day_ Would the young men have waited all this time before pressing the woman to extract the answer? In Judges 14:17 she is said to have tried herself to find it out all the seven days. The two statements are inconsistent. The LXX and Peshitto read _on the fourth day_; but this is sus... [ Continue Reading ]
_before him_ UPON _him_and Judges 14:17, i.e. on his neck; the same idiom in Genesis 45:15. For the woman's wile cf. Judges 16:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_she pressed him sore_ lit. _reduced him to straits_by her importunity; again in Judges 16:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
_before the sun went down_ lit. _went in_. But the word for _sun_(_ḥeres_) is rare and poetical, and it has the accus. ending which denotes motion towards. A slight correction proposed by Stade gives the right sense: _before he went_ INTO THE CHAMBER, the same word as in Judges 15:1. They wait till... [ Continue Reading ]
The sudden access of superhuman power seems to coincide with the outburst of natural passion, as in Judges 14:6; Judges 15:14. _Ashkelon_ Perhaps Khirbet -Asḳalûn, about 4 m. S. of Tibneh (Timnah), rather than the well-known Ashkelon on the sea-coast, 24 m. or 8 hours distant. The anger ought to pr... [ Continue Reading ]
After this violent rupture, and to make up for the disgrace inflicted upon the bride, she _was given to his groomsman who had acted as his groom_; cf. Judges 15:2; Judges 15:6, St John 3:29. LXX. cod. A renders by the technical word νυμφαγωγός, the leader of the bride.... [ Continue Reading ]