Judges 14:15

_BUT IF YE CANNOT DECLARE IT ME, THEN SHALL YE GIVE ME THIRTY SHEETS AND THIRTY CHANGE OF GARMENTS. AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM, PUT FORTH THY RIDDLE, THAT WE MAY HEAR IT._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

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...

THREE DAYS ... ON THE SEVENTH DAY - Proposed alterations, such as “six days ... on the fourth day,” are unnecessary if it be remembered that the narrator passes on first to the seventh day (at Judges 14:15), and then goes back at Judges 14:16 and beginning of Judges 14:17 to what happened on the 4th, 5th, and 6th days. TO TAKE THAT WE HAVE - See the margin. They affirm that they were only invited to the wedding for the sake of plundering them by means of this riddle, and if Samson’s wife was a party to plundering her own countrymen, she should suffer for it....

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 IT CAME TO PASS ON THE SEVENTH DAY,.... Not on the seventh day of the feast, for some time before that they applied to his wife, and she pressed him hard to disclose it; but on the sabbath day, as Kimchi, and so Jarchi says, on the seventh day of the week, not on the seventh day of the feast, for it was the seventh day of the feast; this is so clear, that the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, instead of the seventh, read the fourth day: THAT THEY SAID UNTO SAMSON'S WIFE, ENTICE THY HUSBAND, THAT HE MAY DECLARE UNTO US THE RIDDLE; that is, persuade him to tell the meaning of it to her, that she might declare it to them: LEST WE BURN THEE AND THY FATHER'S HOUSE WITH FIRE; in which she now was, not as yet being taken home to her husband, and her in it; this they said to terrify her, and make her importunate with Samson to explain the riddle to her, if he had any value for her,...

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

SEVENTH. The Septuagint reads "fourth". IS IT NOT SO? The italics reveal the uncertainty of Authorized Version. Many codices read "hither", which yields better sense. Hebrew text reads simply "not"....

_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 suspiciously like what we should expect after _in three days Judges 14:14_. Most critics think that the numbers in Judges 14:14 were added to the original text in order to heighten the difficulty of the riddle and the despair of the Philistines. _unto us_ LXX _unto thee_. Samson could not be expected to tell the Philistines himself. _to impoverish us_ lit. _take possession of, dispossess us_. Th

THAT HE MAY DECLARE UNTO US— The LXX. Syriac, and Arabic, instead of _unto us,_ render the passage, _that he may declare unto thee._...