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Selected Verse: Judges 14:8 - Strong Concordance
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jud 14:8 |
Strong Concordance |
And after a time [03117] he returned [07725] to take [03947] her, and he turned aside [05493] to see [07200] the carcase [04658] of the lion [0738]: and, behold, there was a swarm [05712] of bees [01682] and honey [01706] in the carcase [01472] of the lion [0738]. |
| |
King James |
And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. |
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] |
after a time he returned to take her--probably after the lapse of a year, the usual interval between the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage. It was spent by the bride elect with her parents in preparation for the nuptials; and at the proper time the bridegroom returned to take her home.
he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion--In such a climate, the myriads of insects and the ravages of birds of prey, together with the influences of the solar rays, would, in a few months, put the carcass in a state inviting to such cleanly animals as bees. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The formal dowry and gifts having been given by Samson's father, an interval, varying according to the Oriental custom, from a few days to a full year, elapsed between the betrothal and the wedding, during which the bride lived with her friends. Then came the essential part of the marriage ceremony, namely, the removal of the bride from her father's house to that of the bridegroom or his father.
The carcase of the lion - The lion, slain by him a year or some months before, had now become a mere skeleton, fit for bees to swarm into. It was a universal notion among the ancients that bees were generated from the carcass of an ox. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| When some time had elapsed after the betrothal, he came again to fetch her (take her home, marry her), accompanied, as we learn from Jdg 14:9, by his parents. On the way "he turned aside (from the road) to see the carcase of the lion; and behold a swarm of bees was in the body of the lion, also honey." The word מפּלת, which only occurs here, is derived from נפל, like πτῶμα from πίπτω, and is synonymous with נבלה, cadaver, and signifies not the mere skeleton, as bees would not form their hive in such a place, but the carcase of the lion, which had been thoroughly dried up by the heat of the sun, without passing into a state of putrefaction. "In the desert of Arabia the heat of a sultry season will often dry up all the moisture of men or camels that have fallen dead, within twenty-four hours of their decease, without their passing into a state of decomposition and putrefaction, so that they remain for a long time like mummies, without change and without stench" (Rosenmller, Bibl. Althk. iv. 2, p. 424). In a carcase dried up in this way, a swarm of bees might form their hive, just as well as in the hollow trunks of trees, or clefts in the rock, or where wild bees are accustomed to form them, notwithstanding the fact that bees avoid both dead bodies and carrion (see Bochart, Hieroz, ed. Ros. iii. p. 355). |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| After a time - Heb. after days; that is, either after some days: or, rather, after a year, as that word often signifies; when the flesh of the lion, (which by its strong smell is offensive to bees) was wholly consumed, and nothing was left but the bones. Bees - Settling themselves there, as they have sometimes done in a man's skull, or in a sepulchre. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
After a time - Probably about one year; as this was the time that generally elapsed between espousing and wedding.
A swarm of bees and honey in the carcass - By length of time the flesh had been entirely consumed off the bones, and a swarm of bees had formed their combs within the region of the thorax, nor was it an improper place; nor was the thing unfrequent, if we may credit ancient writers; the carcasses of slain beasts becoming a receptacle for wild bees. The beautiful espisode in the 4th Georgic of Virgil, beginning at ver. 317, proves that the ancients believed that bees might be engendered in the body of a dead ox: -
Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe -
Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros
Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas.
Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus.
Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit.
Hic ver o subitum, ac dietu mirabile monstrum
Adspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto
Stridere apes utero, et ruptis effervere costis;
Immensasque trahi nubes, jamque arbore summa
Confluere, et lentis uvam demittere ramis.
Virg. Geor. lib. iv., ver. 550.
"Sad Aristaeus from fair Tempe fled,
His bees with famine or diseases dead -
Four altars raises, from his herd he culls
For slaughter four the fairest of his bulls;
Four heifers from his female store he took,
All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke.
Nine mornings thence, with sacrifice and prayers,
The powers atoned, he to the grove repairs.
Behold a prodigy! for, from within
The broken bowels, and the bloated skin,
A buzzing noise of bees his ears alarms,
Straight issuing through the sides assembling swarms!
Dark as a cloud, they make a wheeling flight,
Then on a neighboring tree descending light,
Like a large cluster of black grapes they show,
And make a large dependance from the bough.
Dryden. |
9 And he took [07287] thereof in his hands [03709], and went on [03212] eating [0398], and came [01980] to his father [01] and mother [0517], and he gave [05414] them, and they did eat [0398]: but he told [05046] not them that he had taken [07287] the honey [01706] out of the carcase [01472] of the lion [0738].