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Selected Verse: Judges 14:10 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jud 14:10 |
King James |
So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
HIS MARRIAGE FEAST. (Jdg 14:10-11)
his father went down--The father is mentioned as the head and representative of Samson's relatives.
Samson made there a feast--The wedding festivity lasted a week. The men and women were probably entertained in separate apartments--the bride, with her female relatives, at her parents' house; Samson, in some place obtained for the occasion, as he was a stranger. A large number of paranymphs, or "friends of the bridegroom," furnished, no doubt, by the bride's family, attended his party, ostensibly to honor the nuptials, but really as spies on his proceedings. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| Made a feast ... - This was the wedding-feast, protracted in this instance seven days, in that of Tobias (Tobit 8:19) fourteen days. It was an essential part of the marriage ceremony Gen 29:22; Est 2:18; Mat 22:2-4; Rev 19:7, Rev 19:9. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Samson's Wedding and Riddle. - Jdg 14:10. When his father had come down to the girl (sc., to keep the wedding, not merely to make the necessary preparations for his marriage), Samson prepared for a feast there (in Timnath), according to the usual custom (for so used the young men to do).
Jdg 14:11
"And when they saw him, they fetched thirty friends, and they were with him." The parents or relations of the bride are the subject of the first clause. They invited thirty of their friends in Timnath to the marriage feast, as "children of the bride-chamber" (Mat 9:15), since Samson had not brought any with him. The reading כּראותם from ראה needs no alteration, though Bertheau would read כּראתם daer from ירא, in accordance with the rendering of the lxx (Cod. Al.) and Josephus, ἐν τῷ φοβεῖσθαι αὐτούς. Fear of Samson would neither be in harmony with the facts themselves, nor with the words אתּו ויּהיוּ, "they were with him," which it is felt to be necessary to paraphrase in the most arbitrary manner "they watched him."
Jdg 14:12-14
At the wedding feast Samson said to the guests, "I will give you a riddle. If you show it to me during the seven days of the meal (the wedding festival), and guess it, I will give you thirty sedinim (σινδόνες, tunicae, i.e., clothes worn next to the skin) and thirty changes of garments (costly dresses, that were frequently changed: see at Gen 45:22); but if ye cannot show it to me, ye shall give me the same number of garments." The custom or proposing riddles at banquets by way of entertainment is also to be met with among the ancient Grecians. (For proofs from Athenaeus, Pollux, Gellius, see Bochart, Hieroz. P. ii. l. ii. c. 12; and K. O. Mller, Dorier, ii. p. 392). As the guests consented to this proposal, Samson gave them the following riddle (Jdg 14:14): "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." This riddle they could not show, i.e., solve, for three days. That is to say, they occupied themselves for three days in trying to find the solution; after that they let the matter rest until the appointed term was drawing near.
Jdg 14:15-16
On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Persuade thy husband to show us the riddle," sc., through thee, without his noticing it, "lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire. Have ye invited us to make us poor; is it not so?" In this threat the barbarism and covetousness of the Philistines came openly to light. הלירשׁנוּ without Metheg in the י is the inf. Kal of ירשׁ, to make poor-a meaning derived from inheriting, not the Piel of ירשׁ = רוּשׁ, to be poor. הלא, nonne, strengthens the interrogative clause, and has not the signification "here" = הלם. Samson's wife, however, wept over him, i.e., urged him with tears in her eyes, and said, "Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not; thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people (my countrymen), and hast not shown it to me." חדתּה is from חוּד. Samson replied, that he had not even shown it to his father and mother, "and shall I show it to thee?"
Jdg 14:17
"Thus his wife wept before him the seven days of the banquet." This statement is not at variance with that in Jdg 14:15, to the effect that it was only on the seventh day that the Philistine young men urged her with threats to entice Samson to tell the riddle, but may be explained very simply in the following manner. The woman had already come to Samson every day with her entreaties from simple curiosity; but Samson resisted them until the seventh day, when she became more urgent than ever, in consequence of this threat on the part of the Philistines. And "Samson showed it to her, because she lay sore upon him;" whereupon she immediately betrayed it to her countrymen.
Jdg 14:18
Thus on the seventh day, before the sun went down (חרסה = חרס, Jdg 8:13; Job 9:7, with a toneless ah, a softening down of the feminine termination: see Ewald, 173, h.), the men of the city (i.e., the thirty young men who had been invited) said to Samson, "What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion?" But Samson saw through the whole thing, and replied, "If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not hit upon (guessed) my riddle,"-a proverbial saying, the meaning of which is perfectly clear.
Jdg 14:19
Nevertheless he was obliged to keep his promise (Jdg 14:12). Then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, slew thirty men of them, i.e., of the Ashkelonites, took their clothes (חליצות, exuviae: see Sa2 2:21), and gave the changes of garments to those who had shown the riddle. This act is described as the operation of the Spirit of Jehovah which came upon Samson, because it showed to the Philistines the superior power of the servants of Jehovah. It was not carnal revenge that had impelled Samson to the deed. It was not till the deed itself was done that his anger was kindled; and even then it was not against the Philistines, to whom he had been obliged to pay or give the thirty garments, but against his wife, who had betrayed his secret to her countrymen, so that he returned to his father's house, viz., without his wife.
Jdg 14:20
"And Samson's wife was given to his friend, whom he had chosen as a friend." מרע is not doubt to be understood here in the sense of "the friend of the bridegroom" (Joh 3:29), ὁ νυμφαγωγός (lxx), the conductor of the bride-namely, one of the thirty companions (Jdg 14:10), whom Samson had entrusted with this office at the marriage festival. The faithlessness of the Philistines towards the Israelites was no doubt apparent here; for even if Samson went home enraged at the treacherous behaviour of his wife, without taking her with him, he did not intend to break the marriage tie, as Jdg 15:1-2 clearly shows. So that instead of looking at the wrong by which Samson felt himself aggrieved, and trying to mitigate his wrath, the parents of the woman made the breach irreparable by giving their daughter as a wife to his companion. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Samson made there a feast - The marriage feast, when he went to marry his espoused wife. |
10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.
11 And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
1 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.
2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.
29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
20 But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.
21 And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him.
12 And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:
19 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.
7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.
13 And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun was up,
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.
15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?
17 And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have? is it not so?
16 And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee?
14 And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.
12 And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:
13 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.
14 And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
11 And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.