14 One time when Shimshon (Samson) went to Timnah, he noticed a young, Pelishti woman there, 2 and he went back home and he reported to his parents, “I saw a Pelishti woman in Timnah that I’d like you to get for me as my wife.”

3 “Isn’t there a woman among your relatives?” his parents asked him, “Or among all of our people? Why take a wife from the uncircumcised Pelishtim?”

“Get her for me,” Shimshon said to his father, “because I feel she’s right for me.”

4 Now his parents didn’t know that Yahweh was arranging this, because he was seeking an opportunity against the Pelishtim who were oppressing Yisrael (Israel) at that time.

5 Then Shimshon went to Timnah with his parents and when they got to the vineyards there, wow, a young lion roared when it saw him. 6 Yahweh’s spirit rose up in Shimshon, and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands like butchering a young goat, but he didn’t mention to his parents what he’d done.

7 Then he continued on and talked with the woman, and he really liked her. 8 Some time later when he returned for the wedding, he turned off the path to look for the lion’s carcass, and to his surprise, a swarm of bees had nested in the carcass and there was honey there. 9 He filled his cupped hands with honey, and continued along—walking and eating as he went to where his parents were. He even gave some to them to try, but he didn’t tell them that he had scooped it out of the carcass of a dead lion. 10 Then his father went to visit the woman, and in the custom of the young men of the time, Shimshon held a party there. 11 When they saw him, they brought thirty close friends to join him.[fn] 12 Shimshon said to them, “Let me suggest a riddle for you all. If you’re able to explain it to me during the seven days of the party and you’ve worked it out correctly, I’ll give you all thirty linen coats and thirty sets of clothes. 13 But if you all can’t explain it to me, then you yourselves must give me thirty linen coats and thirty sets of clothes.”

“Okay, we’re listening. Tell us the riddle.” they answered.

14 So he said,

“Food came out of the eater,

≈ and sweetness came out of the strong one.”

But three days later, they still couldn’t solve his riddle.

15 Then on the seventh day,[fn] they pressured Shimshon’s wife, “Get your husband to tell you the answer of the riddle, otherwise we’ll burn down your father’ house and you as well. Did you invite us to the party just to impoverish us?”

16 Then Shimshon’s wife put on a crying act and said, “You must hate me—you don’t love me because you’ve created a riddle for my relatives, yet you haven’t even told me the answer.”

“Listen,” he replied, “I haven’t even told my own parents. Should I tell you?” 17 She continued to cry beside him throughout the seven-day party, and then finally on the seventh day, he gave in and told her because she kept nagging him, so in the end she was able to reveal the answer to her relatives. 18 Then the men of the city said to Shimshon before the sun went down on the seventh day,

“What is sweeter than honey?

And what’s stronger than a lion?”

So he said to them,

“If you all hadn’t ploughed with my heifer,

you wouldn’t have been able to solve my riddle.”

19 Then Yahweh’s spirit rose up in him, and he went to Ashkelon and killed thirty men there. He took their possessions, and he gave the changes of clothes for the riddle. But he was very angry, so he went back to his parent’s home. 20 Then (unknown to Shimshon), his wife was given to the man who’d been his close friend and companion.

15 Some days later during the wheat harvest, Shimshon visited his wife with a young goat as a present for the family, because he said, “I’ll go into the bedroom with my wife.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in, 2 and pleaded, “Truly, I thought that you must hate her, so I gave her to your close friend. But wouldn’t her younger sister be better anyway? Please, would you take her instead.”

3 Shimshon responded, “This time I’m blameless concerning the Pelishtim when I cause trouble for them.” 4 Then he went and captured three hundred foxes and tied them in pairs—tail to tail. He took torches, and tied one torch between the tails of each pair. 5 He lit the torches and let the foxes loose into the grain crops of the Pelishtim. As a result, he burnt both the standing grain plants and also the harvested stacks of sheaves, and even a vineyard and an olive orchard. 6 So the Pelishtim asked, “Who did this?”

“Shimshon,” they replied, “the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, because he took Shimshon’s wife and gave her to his close friend.” As a result, the Pelishtim went to Timnah and they burnt both the woman and her father. 7 Then Shimshon told them, “Since you actually did that horrible thing, I certainly won’t stop until I’ve avenged myself against you all.” 8 Then he attacked the Pelishtim and crippled many of them, before going to Eytam’s rock where he lived in a cave.