Judges 14:12–19

¹²Then Samson said to them, “Let me ^jpose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me ^kwithin the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty ^lchanges of clothing. ¹³But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

And they said to him, ^m“Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

¹⁴So he said to them:

“Out of the eater came something to eat,

And out of the strong came something sweet.”

Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

¹⁵But it came to pass on the ²seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, ⁿ“Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, ^oor else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

¹⁶Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, ^p“You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.”

And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people. ¹⁸So the men of the city said to 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 to them:

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

You would not have solved my riddle!”

¹⁹Then ^qthe Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house.