Judges 14:6

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 asunderof a fowl in burnt offering. The comparison as one rends a kidmay refer to some ceremonial act, as Moore suggests, but we have no evidence of such a practice. Milton's version, -Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid," Samson Agonistes, l. 128, gets over the difficulty by substituting -the lion" for the indefinite subject (as one rends). The hero's fight with a lion is a favourite theme in ancient mythology and folk-lore; e.g. the scene represented on early Bab. seals, above, p. 130; the reliefs from the palace of Ashurbanipal (A. Jeremias, l.c. 479); Herakles and the Nemean lion figured on Greek Colossians 1; Colossians 1 [55]; the stories of David and of Benaiah (1 Samuel 17:34-36; 2 Samuel 23:20).

[55] Hill, Catal. of Gk. Coins in the Brit. Mus., Cyprus, Pl. xxv. 6 8; Lycaonia, etc., Pl. xvii. 5, xl. 12. Instances of this motiffrom ancient sources are collected by Stahn, Die Simson-Sage, 1908, pp. 32 ff.

but he told notetc.] The clause introduces some confusion, and may be an interpolation from Judges 14:9.