Samson Part 1
by C. R. Biggs

Judges 14:1-10

I. Passage Boundaries
A. Boundaries: 14:1 begins the new section as the narrative tells the story of Samson as an adult. In 13:25, the Spirit of the LORD begins to "stir" Samson. Although Prof. Block argues that 13:25 begins the new section, the discourse marker of waw plus imperfect in 14:1 begins the new section. This is a new setting as Samson is introduced as an adult. The verses are arranged around the use of [dr,YEw] (cf. 14:1,5,10). Thus the new section begins with 14:1 and ends with 14:10. The scene changes in 14:11 to the wedding feast and Samson's riddle with the use of [yhiy>w].

B. Unity: Judges 14:1-10 is Samson's going down and up; back and forth to take a Philistine wife from Timnah. There is one time in v. 4 where the author uses a waw disjunctive to take the reader out of the story to explain the purposes of God. Overall, the unity of this passage is found in Samson seeing and seeking a foreign wife, going back and forth from his home to Timnah in order to acquire her. Tucked in the middle of the narrative is the event of Samson being overcome by a young lion and his great strength by the Spirit of YHWH.

C. Meaning: Samson is a "little Israel," a microcosm of what Israel does in disobedience to the covenant and the words of Moses recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy. That is, marrying foreign women and seeking after foreign gods but also developing a blindness, an inability to remember "what their eyes had seen" and doing what is "right in their own eyes."

II. Translation (Exegetical Meaning, Part One)

JUDGES 14:1-10
1. Samson went down to Timnah
and he saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.
2. Then he came up
and told his father and mother,
and said:
"I saw at Timnah one of the daughters of the Philistines .
Now, Get her for me as a wife!"
3. Then his father and mother said to him:
"Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers (kinsmen),
or among all our people,
that you must go to take
a wife from uncircumcised Philistines?"
Samson (answered) said to his father:
"Get her for me;
for she pleases me well."
4. (But his father and mother did not know that it was from the YHWH;
for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel).
5. Then Samson went down and his father and mother to Timnah.
Then he came to the vineyards of Timnah.
Behold ,
a young lion roared to meet him (or against him).
6. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed mightily (came) upon him ,
and he tore apart (the lion),
as one tears a kid (young goat) ;
and he had nothing in his hand.
But he did not tell his father or his mother
what he had done.
7. And he went down
and spoke to the woman;
and she pleased Samson well.
8. He returned after some time,
to take her ;
and he turned aside to see the carcass (lit. "ruin") of the lion,
and behold ,
there was a congregation (swarm) of bees in the body of the lion - -and honey!
9. And he scraped some honey in his palm,
and went on,
eating as he went ;
and he came to his father and mother,
and gave some to them,
and they ate.
But he did not tell them that from the carcass of the lion
he had scraped out the honey.
10. And his father went down to the woman,
and Samson made a feast there;
for so young men used to do.

Bibliography

Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth, New American Commentary:6, Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1999.

Groves, J. Allen. "The Book of Judges," New Geneva Study Bible, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995.

Holladay, William L, ed. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Based on the First, Second, and Third Editions of the Koehler-Baumgartner Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.

Putnam, Frederic Clarke. Hebrew Bible Insert: A Student's Guide to the Syntax of Biblical Hebrew. Quakertown, PA: Stylus Publications, 1996.

Ryken, Leland and Longman, Tremper, eds. A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible: "Joshua and Judges," K. R. R. Gros Louis and Willard Van Antwerpen. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1993.

Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J. C., and Longman, T., eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.

CD ROM/ Computer Software

Bushell, Michael S., ed. Hermeneutika, Computer Bible Resource Software, Big Fork, MT: Bushell, 1992-1997.

Elliger, K. and Rudoph, W. ed. Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensia (BHS), DBS: 1997.

Whitaker, Richard, ed. Whitaker's Revised BDB, Hebrew-English Lexicon, 1995.