A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

decaying carcass of the lion as a hive and it was filled with honey. He took some of the unclean
honey and ate it. Though he shared it with his parents, he was careful not to tell them where he
had found it, just as he had avoided telling them he had killed the lion in the vineyard originally.
Samson must have known his parents would object to his compromise of his Nazarite vow had
they known the truth.
It was customary to conduct a seven-day drinking feast as part of a marriage, and for the
next week, Samson was the host of such a feast. The couple was married early in the week-long
celebration, but the marriage was not consummated until the groom took his bride home on the
last night of the feast. Samson used the occasion of the feast to make a wager with the thirty
Philistine men who gathered at the feast as his companions. If they could solve a riddle, he
would give each of them a new garment. But if they failed, it was they who were to give him the
new garments. The riddle was expressed by Samson in the words, “Out of the eater came
something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet” (v. 14). Despite their efforts, the
Philistines were unable to resolve the riddle during the next three days.
When the Philistines realized they could not solve the riddle, they threatened Samson’s
wife calling on her to tell them the riddle or be burned alive with her father in her father’s house.
Rather than telling her husband of the threat and letting him defend her, she chose to manipulate
him into revealing the secret of the riddle. In taking this course of action, she was exposing
herself to grave danger and cutting herself off from any defense she would have against those
threatening her. As it turned out, even though she did as they requested, they still burned her and
her father (15:6).
Samson’s wife “wept on him the seven days while the feast lasted” (14:17). She accused
Samson of not loving her and keeping secrets from her. Finally, as the result of her constant
nagging, he told her the secret of the riddle, “then she explained the riddle to the sons of her
people” (v. 17). The men were able to win the wager, but Samson was not deceived as to how
they had learned the answer. He paid off his debt by making a quick trip to Ashkelon and killing
thirty Philistines. The garments of his victims were then given to the men of the city. In his
anger, Samson returned to his father’s house forgetting his bride. To save the forsaken bride any
undue embarrassment, she was given in marriage to the “best man” as was the custom of those
days.
Sometime later, Samson cooled off enough to realize he had forgotten to bring his bride
home. He returned to Timnah to collect her only to learn her father had married her off to the
best man. The father offered the girl’s younger sister as a substitute wife for Samson, arguing she
was prettier than the daughter Samson had intended to marry, but Samson refused. As he left the
city, he caught 300 foxes and tied them together in pairs. He then attached torches to their tails
and sent them running wild through the fields, vineyards, and orchards of the city. The crops,
vineyards, and olive groves were all destroyed by the ensuing fire. When the men of the city
learned Samson was the cause of this catastrophe, they burned his wife and father-in-law.
Samson engaged in physical conflict with a number of Philistines on that occasion “he attacked
them hip and thigh with a great slaughter” (15:8).
Understandably, the Philistines were upset with Samson’s actions. When they learned
Samson was living at the top of the rock of Etam, they came against Judah in battle. Eager to
avoid a military conflict with the Philistines, the men of Judah sought to negotiate a peace with
the Philistines. The terms to which they agreed involved turning Samson over to the Philistines
bound. Samson agreed to let the men of Judah bind him and turn him over to the Philistines