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CHAPTER XIV

Samson marries a wife of the Philistines, 1-4. Slays a young lion at Timnath, in the carcass of which he afterwards finds a swarm of bees, 5-9. He makes a feast; they appoint him thirty companions, to whom he puts forth a riddle, which they cannot expound, 10-14. They entice his wife to get the interpretation from him; she succeeds, informs them, and they tell the explanation, 15-18. He is incensed, and slays thirty of the Philistines, 19, 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIV

Verse 1. "Went down to Timnath" - A frontier town of the Philistines, at the beginning of the lands belonging to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 57; but afterwards given up to Dan, Josh. xix. 43. David took this place from the Philistines, but they again got possession of it in the reign of Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.

Verse 3. "Is there never a woman" - To marry with any that did not belong to the Israelitish stock, was contrary to the law, Exodus xxxiv. 16; Deut. vii. 3. But this marriage of Samson was said to be of the Lord, ver. 4; that is, God permitted it, (for in no other sense can we understand the phrase,) that it might be a means of bringing about the deliverance of Israel.

"For she pleaseth me well." - yny[b hr�y ayh yk ki hi yisherah beeynai, for she is right in my eyes. This is what is supposed to be a sufficient reason to justify either man or woman in their random choice of wife or husband; the maxim is the same with that of the poet: - "Thou hast no fault, or I no fault can spy; Thou art all beauty or all blindness I." When the will has sufficient power, its determinations are its own rule of right. That will should be pure and well directed that says, It shall be so, because I WILL it should be so. A reason of this kind is similar to that which I have seen in a motto on the brass ordnance of Lewis XIV., ULTIMA RATIO REGUM, the sum of regal logic; i.e., "My will, backed by these instruments of destruction, shall be the rule of right and wrong." The rules and principles of this logic are now suspected; and it is not likely to be generally received again without violent demonstration.

Verse 5. "A young lion roared against him." - Came fiercely out upon him, ready to tear him to pieces.

Verse 6. "He rent him as he would have rent a kid" - Now it is not intimated that he did this by his own natural strength, but by the Spirit of the Lord coming mightily upon him: so that his strength does not appear to be his own, nor to be at his command; his might was, by the will of God, attached to his hair and to his Nazarate.

Verse 7. "And talked with the woman" - That is, concerning marriage; thus forming the espousals.

Verse 8. "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 neighbouring tree descending light, Like a large cluster of black grapes they show, And make a large dependance from the bough. DRYDEN.

Verse 10. "Samson made there a feast" - The marriage feast, when he went to marry his espoused wife.

Verse 11. "They brought thirty companions" - These are called in Scripture children of the bride-chamber, and friends of the bridegroom. See the whole of this subject particularly illustrated in the observations at the end of John iii. 25.

Verse 12. "I will now put forth a riddle" - Probably this was one part of the amusements at a marriage-feast; each in his turn proposing a riddle, to be solved by any of the rest on a particular forfeit; the proposer forfeiting, if solved, the same which the company must forfeit if they could not solve it.

"Thirty sheets" - I have no doubt that the Arab hayk, or hake, is here meant; a dress in which the natives of the East wrap themselves, as a Scottish Highlander does in his plaid. In Asiatic countries the dress scarcely ever changes; being nearly the same now that it was 2000 years ago. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, thus mentions the Moorish dress: "It resembles," says he, "that of the ancient patriarchs, as represented in paintings; (but the paintings are taken from Asiatic models;) that of the men consists of a red cap and turban, a (kumja) shirt, which hangs outside of the drawers, and comes down below the knee; a (caftan) coat, which buttons close before, and down to the bottom, with large open sleeves; over which, when they go out of doors, they throw carelessly, and sometimes elegantly, a hayk, or garment of white cotton, silk, or wool, five or six yards long, and five feet wide. The Arabs often dispense with the caftan, and even with the shirt, wearing nothing but the hayk." When an Arab does not choose to wrap himself in the hayk, he throws it over his left shoulder, where it hangs till the weather, &c., obliges him to wrap it round him. The hayk is either mean or elegant, according to the quality of the cloth, and of the person who wears it. I have myself seen the natives of Fez, with hayks, or hykes, both elegant and costly. By the changes of garments, it is very likely that the kumja and caftan are meant, or at least the caftan; but most likely both: for the Hebrew has �ydgb twpylj chaliphoth begadim, changes or succession of garments. Samson, therefore, engaged to give or receive thirty hayks, and thirty kumjas and caftans, on the issue of the interpretation or non-interpretation of his riddle: these were complete suits.

Verse 14. "And he said unto there" - Thus he states or proposes his riddle: - Out of the eater came forth meat, And out of the strong came forth sweetness.

Instead of strong, the Syriac and Arabic have bitter. I have no doubt that the riddle was in poetry; and perhaps the two hemistichs above preserve its order. This was scarcely a fair riddle; for unless the fact to which it refers were known, there is no rule of interpretation by which it could be found out. We learn from the Scholiast, on Aristophanes, Vesp. v. 20, that It was a custom among the ancient Greeks to propose at their festivals, what were called grifoi, griphoi, riddles, enigmas, or very obscure sayings, both curious and difficult, and to give a recompense to those who found them out, which generally consisted in either a festive crown, or a goblet full of wine. Those who failed to solve them were condemned to drink a large portion of fresh water, or of wine mingled with a sea-water, which they were compelled to take down at one draught, without drawing their breath, their hands being tied behind their backs. Sometimes they gave the crown to the deity in honour of whom the festival was made: and if none could solve the riddle, the reward was given to him who proposed it.

Of these enigmas proposed at entertainments &c., we have numerous examples in ATHENAEUS, Deipnosoph, lib. x., c. 15, p. 142, edit.

Argentorat., and some of them very like this of Samson for example: - didouv tiv ouk edwken, oud� ecwn ecei; "Who gives, and does not give? Who has not, and yet has?" This may be spoken of an enigma and its proposer: he gives it, but he does not give the sense; the other has it, but has not the meaning.

esti fusiv qhleia brefh sozous� upo kolpoiv authv� tauta d� afwna bohn isthsi gegwnon.

kai dia pontion oidma, kai hpeirou dia pashv, oiv eqelei qnhtwn� toiv d� ou pareousiv akouein exesti� kwfhn d� akohv aisqhsin ecousin.

"There is a feminine Nature, fostering her children in her bosom; who, although they are dumb, send forth a distinct voice over every nation of the earth, and every sea, to whom soever they please. It is possible for those who are absent to hear, and for those who are deaf to hear also." The relator brings in Sappho interpreting it thus: - qhleia men oun esti fusiv, epistolh.

brefh d� en auth periferei ta grammata afwna d� onta tauta toiv porrw lalei, oiv bouleqƝ eterov d� an tuch tiv plhsion �estwv anaginwskontov, ouk akousetai.

"The Nature, which is feminine, signifies an epistle; and her children whom she bears are alphabetical characters: and these, being dumb, speak and give counsel to any, even at a distance; though he who stands nigh to him who is silently reading, hears no voice." Here is another, attributed by the same author to Theodectes: - thv fusewv osa gaia ferei trofov, oud� osa pontov, oute brotoisin ecei guiwn auxhsin omoian.

all� en men genesei prwtosporw esti megisth, en de mesaiv akmaiv mikra, ghra de prov autw morfh kai megeqei meizwn palin estin apantwn.

"Neither does the nourishing earth so bear by nature, nor the sea, nor is there among mortals a like increase of parts; for at the period of its birth it is greatest, but in its middle age it is small, and in its old age it is again greater in form and size than all." This is spoken of a shadow. At the rising of the sun in the east, the shadow of an object is projected illimitably across the earth towards the west; at noon, if the sun be vertical to that place, the shadow of the object is entirely lost; at sunsetting, the shadow is projected towards the east, as it was in the morning towards the west.

Here is another, from the same author: - eisi kasignhtai dittai, wn h mia tiktei thn eperan, auth de tekous� upo thsde teknoutai.

"There are two sisters, the one of whom begets the other, and she who is begotten produces her who begat her." Day and night solve this enigma. The following I have taken from Theognis: - hdh gar me keklhke qalattiov oikade nekrov, teqnhkwv, zww fqeggomenov stomati. THEOGN. Gnom., in fine.

"A dead seaman calls me to his house; And, although he be dead, he speaks with a living mouth." This dead seaman is a conch or large shellfish, of which the poet was about to eat. The mouth by which it spoke signifies its being used as a horn; as it is well known to produce, when opened at the spiral end and blown, a very powerful sound.

Verse 17. "And she wept before him" - Not through any love to him, for it appears she had none, but to oblige her paramours; and of this he soon had ample proof.

Verse 18. "If ye had not ploughed with my heifer" - If my wife had not been unfaithful to my bed, she would not have been unfaithful to my secret; and, you being her paramours, your interest was more precious to her than that of her husband. She has betrayed me through her attachment to you.

Calmet has properly remarked, in quoting the Septuagint, that to plough with one's heifer, or to plough in another man's ground, are delicate turns of expression used both by the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, to point out a wife's infidelities. Thus Theognis, Gnom. v. 5lx21: - ecqairw de gunaika peridromon, andra te margon.

�ov thn allonrihn boulet� arouran aroun.

"I detest a woman who gads about, and also a libidinous man, who wishes to plough in another man's ground." Fundum alienium arat, incultum familiarem deserit. PLAUTUS.

"He ploughs another's farm, and leaves his own heritage uncultivated." Milo domi non est, perepre at Milone profecto Arva vacant, uxor non minus inde parit. MARTIAL.

"Milo is not at home, and Milo being from home, his field lies uncultivated; his wife, nevertheless, continues to breed, and brings forth children." There is the same metaphor in the following lines of Virgil: - Hoc faciunt, nimo ne luxu obtusior usus, Sit genitali arvo, sulcosque oblimet inertes. Geor. l. iii., v. 135.

In this sense Samson's words were understood by the Septuagint, by the Syriac, and by Rabbi Levi. See BOCHART, Hierozoic. p. 1., lib. ii., cap. 41., col. 406. The metaphor was a common one, and we need seek for no other interpretation of the words of Samson.

Verse 19. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him" - "The spirit of fortitude from before the Lord." -Targum. He was inspired with unusual courage, and he felt strength proportioned to his wishes.

"He-slew thirty men-and took their spoils" - He took their hayks, their kumjas, and caftans, and gave them to the thirty persons who, by unfair means, had solved his riddle; thus they had what our version calls thirty sheets, and thirty changes of raiment. See the note on ver. 12.

Verse 20. "But Samson's wife was given to his companion" - This was the same kind of person who is called the friend of the bridegroom, John iii. 29.