Judges 14:12

_AND SAMSON SAID UNTO THEM, I WILL NOW PUT FORTH A RIDDLE UNTO YOU: IF YE CAN CERTAINLY DECLARE IT ME WITHIN THE SEVEN DAYS OF THE FEAST, AND FIND IT OUT, THEN I WILL GIVE YOU THIRTY SHEETS AND THIRTY CHANGE OF GARMENTS:_ I will now put forth a riddle. Riddles are a favourite Oriental amusement at festive entertainments of this nature, and rewards are offered to those who give the solution. Samson's riddle related to honey gotten in the lion's carcass. The prize he offered was thirty sindinim, or shirts-not sheets, as in our version, but wide linen garments worn next the body, only, it would seem, by persons of rank and wealth-and thirty changes of garments, probably woollen. Three days were passed in vain attempts to unravel the enigma. The festive week was fast drawing to a close, when they secretly enlisted the services of the newly-married wife....

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 14:12. _I WILL NOW PUT FORTH A RIDDLE_] Probably this was one part of the amusements at a marriage-feast; each in his turn proposing a riddle, to be solved by any of the rest on a particular forfeit; the proposer forfeiting, if solved, the same which the company must forfeit if they could not solve it. _THIRTY SHEETS_] I have no doubt that the Arab _hayk_, or _hake_, is here meant; a dress in which the natives of the East wrap themselves, as a Scottish Highlander does in his _plaid_. In Asiatic countries the dress scarcely ever changes; being nearly the same now that it was 2000 years ago. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, thus mentions the Moorish dress: "It resembles," says he, "that of the ancient patriarchs, as represented in paintings; (_but the paintings are taken from_ _Asiatic models_;) that o

See the marginal references. Riddles formed one of the amusements of these protracted feasts. SHEETS - Rather “linen shirts;” the “garments” which follow are the outward garments worn by the Orientals....

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

AND SAMSON SAID UNTO THEM,.... His thirty companions, very likely on the first day of the feast: I WILL NOW PUT FORTH A RIDDLE TO YOU: a secret, hidden, abstruse thing, not easy to be understood; a dark saying, wrapped up in figurative terms; and this he proposed as an amusement to them, to exercise their wits, which it seems was usual to entertain guests with, and might be both pleasing and profitable: IF YOU CAN CERTAINLY DECLARE IT UNTO ME WITHIN THE SEVEN DAYS OF THE FEAST; for so long the nuptial feast was usually kept, see Genesis 29:27. If they could find it out; and with clearness and certainty explain the riddle to him within that period of time, which was giving them time enough to do it in: THEN I WILL GIVE YOU THIRTY SHEETS, AND THIRTY CHANGE OF GARMENTS: that is, every man one of each. By "sheets" he means

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

I WILL. Let me. SHEETS. linen wraps, or shirts....

_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, _Hebr. Arch._2, p. 109 _n._). _linen garments_ The garment referred to (Hebr. _sâdîn_,...