Judges 14

Samson is smarter than he looks.

Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman and wants to marry her. His parents do not like this because the Philistines are enemies, but eventually give in. The text says that God actually orchestrated this to spark a conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines, in particular, Samson.

While going back and forth from her city and to his city, Samson encounters a lion. God gives him supernatural strength and he rips the lion apart. Samson acts normally as if this is a frequent occurrence. This is the first documented example of Samson’s supernatural strength, so this could have been the first. However, given Samson’s nonchalant attitude, maybe not.

Later, this lion carcass is found with honey, which Samson eats. OK, this would actually render him ceremonially unclean, but I don’t think it’s a Nazarite violation either. Either way, it’s not important.

A wedding is organized and at the wedding feast, 30 Philistine men arrive. Samson seems to perceive them as a threat so he makes a wager with a riddle – “out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet”. Huh? If they cannot figure this out in 7 days, he wins. It’s obviously a reference to the honey and the lion, but how would he expect them to find it?

The Philistines are confused by it as well, so they harass his wife and threaten to burn her parents’ home down. He tells her the answer, she tells others, and then they respond with another riddle – “what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion?”

Busted Samson! They figured out his retarded riddle, although they had to get the answer from his wife. He responds with a metaphor that they plowed his “heifer” and that’s how they figured it out.

He’s not going to pay them the wager (some clothes) but instead kills 30 of them, takes their clothes, and gives the clothes to people who had figured out the riddle. Then, Samson’s wife is given to another man.

The war is on!

Is all this really about the answer to a riddle? That would seem like an over-reaction on everyone’s part. But rather, I think the situation was a powder keg ready to explode and Samson ignited it. God giving him the strength to kill a lion is God showing him what he can do. Had he not killed the lion, he probably would not have been as antagonistic to the Philistines. It’s almost like the riddle about the lion’s carcass served another function – “I killed that lion and I will do the same to you.”