Judges 14:18

_AND THE MEN OF THE CITY SAID UNTO HIM ON THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE SUN WENT DOWN, WHAT IS SWEETER THAN HONEY? AND WHAT IS STRONGER THAN A LION? AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, IF YE HAD NOT PLOWED WITH MY HEIFER, YE HAD NOT FOUND OUT MY RIDDLE._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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 14:18. _IF YE HAD NOT PLOUGHED WITH MY HEIFER_] If my wife had not been unfaithful to my bed, she would not have been unfaithful to my secret; and, you being her paramours, your interest was more precious to her than that of her husband. She has betrayed me through her attachment to you. Calmet has properly remarked, in quoting the _Septuagint_, that to _plough with one's heifer_, or to _plough in another man's ground_, are delicate turns of expression used both by the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, to point out a wife's infidelities. Thus Theognis, Gnom. v. 581: - Εχθαιρω δε γυναικα περιδρομον, ανδρα τε μαργον. Ὁς την αλλονριην βουλετ' αρουραν αρουν....

They try to give the answer in a way to make it appear that they had guessed it. Samson saw at once that she had betrayed him. He lets them know in a speech, which was of the nature of a riddle, that he had discovered the treachery....

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 THE MEN OF THE CITY SAID UNTO HIM, ON THE SEVENTH DAY, BEFORE THE SUN WENT DOWN,.... And so soon, enough to free them from the obligation they otherwise would have been under, to have given him the sheets and changes of raiment agreed unto: WHAT IS SWEETER THAN HONEY? nothing, at least that was known, sugar not being invented. Julian the emperor n, in commendation of figs, shows, from various authors, that nothing is sweeter than they, excepting honey: AND WHAT IS STRONGER THAN A LION? no creature is, it is the strongest among beasts, Proverbs 30:30. Homer o gives the epithet of strong to a lion: AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, IF YE HAD NOT PLOUGHED WITH MY HEIFER; meaning his wife, whom he compares to an heifer, young, wanton, and unaccustomed to the yoke p; and by "ploughing" with her, he alludes to such creatures being employed t

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

WHAT. ? Figure of speech _Anteisagoge._ App-6. IF. Figure of speech _Paroemia._ App-6....

_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 the last moment before the wedding was completed....