Judges 14:10

_SO HIS FATHER WENT DOWN UNTO THE WOMAN: AND SAMSON MADE THERE A FEAST; FOR SO USED THE YOUNG MEN TO_ _ DO._ His father went down. The father is mentioned as the head and representative of Samson's relatives. SAMSON MADE THERE A FEAST. The wedding festivity lasted a week. The men and women were probably entertained in separate apartments-the bride, with her female relatives, at her parents' house; Samson, in some place obtained for the occasion, as he was a stranger. A large number of paranymphs, or 'friends of the bridegroom,' furnished, no doubt, by the bride's family, attended his party, ostensibly to honour the nuptials, but really as spies on his proceedings....

10-20 Samson's riddle literally meant no more than that he had got honey, for food and for pleasure, from the lion, which in its strength and fury was ready to devour him. But the victory of Christ over Satan, by means of his humiliation, agonies, and death, and the exaltation that followed to him, with the glory thence to the Father, and spiritual advantages to his people, seem directly alluded to. And even death, that devouring monster, being robbed of his sting, and stripped of his horror, forwards the soul to the realms of bliss. In these and other senses, out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong, sweetness. Samson's companions obliged his wife to get the explanation from him. A worldly wife, or a worldly friend, is to a godly man as an enemy in the camp, who will watch every opportunity to betray him. No union can be comfortable or lasting, where secrets cannot be i...

Verse Judges 14:10. _SAMSON MADE THERE A FEAST_] The marriage feast, when he went to marry his espoused wife....

MADE A FEAST ... - This was the wedding-feast, protracted in this instance seven days, in that of Tobias (Tobit 8:19) fourteen days. It was an essential part of the marriage ceremony Genesis 29:22; Esther 2:18; Matthew 22:2; Revelation 19:7, Revelation 19:9....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 14:10 SO HIS FATHER WENT DOWN. It is not clear what is meant by this mention of his father alone; but it was probably some part of the wedding etiquette that the father should go to the bride first alone; perhaps, as Kimehi says, to give her notice of the bridegroom's approach, that she might get ready. Among the preparations may have been the selection of the thirty young men to be "the children of the bride-chamber'' (Matthew 9:15). As these were all Philistines, the inference is that they were selected by the bride, just as with us the bride has the privilege of choosing the minister who is to officiate at the marriage. Judges 14:11

SO HIS FATHER WENT DOWN UNTO THE WOMAN,.... At Timnath, whom Samson had espoused; the Targum is, "about the business of the woman;'' about the consummation of the marriage with her; they all three went, the father, the mother, and the son, as appears from the preceding verse: FOR SAMSON MADE A FEAST, FOR SO USED THE YOUNG MEN TO DO; at the time of marriage; this was the nuptial feast common in all nations; but it seems the custom now and here was for the bridegroom to make it; whereas from other instances we learn, that the father of the bridegroom used to make it, Matthew 22:2 and the Vulgate Latin version here renders it, AND HE MADE A FEAST FOR HIS SON SAMSON; the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions add, seven days, and so long this feast was kept,...

CHAPTER 14 THE FIRST DEEDS OF SAMSON _ 1. The woman in Timnath (Judges 14:1)_ 2. The killing of the young lion and the honey in the carcass (Judges 14:5) 3. The marriage feast and the riddle (Judges 14:10) 4. The riddle answered (Judges 14:15) 5. Thirty Philistines slain by Samson (Judges 14:19) Samson was called of God to be a true Nazarite, but in his life which was to manifest the Nazarite character he failed. “He went down to Timnath” is a foreboding beginning. It was a step in the wrong direction. He st

SAMSON'S MARRIAGE. As he could not take an unwelcomed bride to his father's house, Samson resolved to contract a marriage in which his wife would remain at her father's house (Judges 9:2 *). Judges 14:5 conveys the idea that his parents after all gave their consent, and even went down with him to the wedding. This in itself is improbable, and there is no indication of their presence at Timnath or of their returning home. Moore plausibly suggests that a later writer, taking offence at the story of an improper marriage, inserted and his father and his mother in order to regularise it. The same applies to Judges 14:10. Judges 14:6. _Cf._ D

_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. The _young men_mean bridegrooms. It was customary for the wedding feast to be held in the bridegroom's home (cf. 2Es 9:47, Tob 8:19 f., Judges 11:19, St Matthew 22:2); in the present case, however, Samson gave the feast in the bride's village, if not in her father's house,...

AND SAMSON MADE THERE A FEAST— Nuptial feasts of this kind were usual in all countries. And, no doubt, Samson's riddle was proposed by him in accommodation to the customs of these feasts, as the thirty companions were brought by his wife's friends, as a kind of bridemen to honour his nuptials. See Lowth. Praelect. Poet. p. 392. 8vo....