Samson Seeks a Bride

[Jug. 14:1] And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Samson’s liaison with Philistine women from Timnah, Gaza (16:1), and the Sorek Valley (v. 4) recalls Joshua’s warning against making marriages with the remnant of these nations left here among you (Josh. 23:12; Deut. 7:3). The Spirit drives Samson down to Timnath (Mk. 1:12) to begin the drama of his wedding and its aftermath. Timnath, now Tibna, about three miles from Zorah, his birthplace.
On seven subsequent occasions, the Spirit rushes on him with sudden power:
1. To tear apart a lion with his bare hands (v. 6).
2. To kill thirty of Ashkelon’s elite leaders (v. 19).
3. To burst the bonds put on him by men of Judah in order to hand him over to the Philistines.
4. To kill another one thousand Philistines at Lehi (15:14-15).
5. To have strength to carry the gates of Gaza 24 miles to Hebron.
6. To break Delilah’s bonds three times (v. 9, 12, 14).
7. To bring the military, political, and social elite of Philistia to their death around his head (v. 30).
Samson wants a wife, in the East parents did, and do in many cases still, negotiate the marriage alliances for their sons. During their period of ascendancy, the Philistine invaders had settled in the towns; and the intercourse between them and the Israelites was often of such a friendly and familiar character as to issue in matrimonial relations. Moreover, the Philistines were not in the number of the seven devoted nations of Canaan (Deut. 7:1-3) – with whom the Law forbade them to marry. The kind of marriage custom reflected in Samson’s marriage resembles that in North Thailand, where the groom goes to live in the bride’s family home after the wedding. Samson is on his way down to Timnah with his parents to arrange for his risky wedding with the Philistine girl. He insists, against their better judgment, that she is right in his eyes. His repeated going down to Timnah, and later to Gaza means a fateful, deliberate entry into the Philistine territory. From this perspective Samson is G-d’s secret weapon.
Suddenly Samson is alone, about to enter the Philistine vineyards of Timnah. In the setting of the impending wedding, the erotic association of vine, vineyard, and wine spring to mind along with the warning that the grapes and wine of the enemy contain bitter poison (Deut. 32:32-33). The vineyard reminds us of the Nazarite vow to eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins (Num. 6:4), and anticipates Samson’s drinking feast for the wedding party. In a Greek drama, words of warning might be spoken by a chorus as the hero approaches the tempting vineyard.
The lion from this very vineyard a roaring lion leaps out at Samson. The terms eater, or the devouring one; and the strong of the riddle resonate with other verses about the wicked as a ravening and roaring lion (Ps. 22:13). Such a lion lurks in secret, watching for the hapless poor to drag him away, with mouth open (22:21) and fangs bared (58:6), eager to tear his prey (17:12). The lion as a symbol for the contemporary enemy of Samson’s time, namely the Philistines. Instead of finding love in the vineyards of Timnah, Samson encountered a murderous enemy. He was able to overcome the lion only by the power of G-d’s Spirit! Samson’s encounter with the lion not only gives him the idea for his riddle, but also breaks up his marriage (v. 15-20) and provides four occasions against the Philistines (v. 19; 15:4, 8, 15). Samson’s bare-handed fight with the lion makes him a world hero in the Israelite tradition. A lion in the pride of his youthful prime. The wild mountain passes of Judah were the lairs of savage beasts; and most or all the "lions" of Scripture occur in that wild country. His rending and killing the shaggy monster, without any weapon in his hand, were accomplished by that superhuman courage and strength which the occasional influences of the Spirit enabled him to put forth, and by the exertion of which, in such private incidental circumstances, he was gradually trained to confide in them for the more public work to which he was destined.
The honey – in the carcass of the dead lion Samson finds honey, eats it, and gives some to his parents. At first thought we might relate honey to erotic but forbidden pleasures associated with the wine of the vineyard. However, the honey is in fact associated with the dead lion. At one level, the honey may have served to revive Samson’s strength and courage as in the case of Jonathan who, after his part in the great victory over the Philistines, ate some honey and was refreshed (1 Sam. 14:27, 29). At another level, honey would suggest a future period of peace after the destruction of the oppressing power when G-d would restore to his people and the land flowing with milk and honey. Giving the honey to his parents would be in effect encouraging them with hope that the whole affair of the wedding would turn out well for Israel in spite of the obvious dangers involved.
In each case of the affairs with Philistine women Samson was looking for love (symbolized by the vineyard), when he meets dander (symbolized by the lion). His bride betrays him in order to save herself from death by fire at the hands of the young Philistine men at the wedding party. The Philistines burn his wife and father-in-law in revenge for his burning of their crops (15:6), then seek to destroy him at Lehi, and lay in wait for him again and again until they are able to overcome, cripple and humiliate him. In each case a sudden onrush of strength (G-d’s Spirit) enables Samson to overcome or outwit the enemy. In each case he discovers an unexpected grace (symbolized by the honey). Utterly exhausted after the deliverance brought by his victory at Lehi, he utters his humble prayer for deliverance from the hands of the Philistines. G-d’s gift of water from the rock revives his strength and courage so that he is enable to judge Israel 20 years.
The social intercourse between the youth of different sexes is extremely rare and limited in the East, and generally so after they are betrothed. 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.
The Hebrew word translated feast means literally drinking feast. Strong drink should probably be beer. 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 Para nymphs, 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.
I will now put forth a riddle - Riddles are a favorite Oriental amusement at festive entertainments of this nature, and rewards are offered to those who give the solution. Samson's riddle related to honey in the lion's carcass. The prize he offered was thirty sindinim, or shirts, and thirty changes of garments, probably woolen. Three days were passed in vain attempts to unravel the enigma. The festive week was fast drawing to a close when they secretly enlisted the services of the newly married wife, who having got the secret, revealed it to her friends. 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. The riddle, on its face a bawdy wedding night joke among male companions, carries deeper meaning. "The friend of the bridegroom”, who was the medium of communicating during the festivities between him and his bride. The acceptance of her hand, therefore, was an act of base treachery that could not fail to provoke the just resentment of Samson.
The proposal the father wanted to made of a marriage with her younger sister was but an insult to Samson, and one which it was unlawful for an Israelite to accept (Leviticus 18:18). Samson took revenge, Manoah’s traditional faith would see Samson’s life in a moralistic light as a story of broken vows, brutish behavior, the profligate wasting of a consecrated life, and a fatal weakness of the Danite man for Philistine women – as a negative example for the reader. Samson’s mother would be more ready to see her son’s life and death in relation to the great deliverance from the Philistines which he brings to one segment of the people of Israel.