Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 14:8
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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 8. And after a time he returned to take her , etc.] Matters being agreed on, and settled on both sides, and the espousals made, he and his parents returned, and, at the proper usual time for the consummation of the marriage, he went again to Timnath for that purpose. It is in the Hebrew text, “after days” f283 , which sometimes signifies a year, (see Genesis 4:3 Exodus 13:10) and so Ben Gersom interprets it, that a year after this woman became Samson’s wife (i.e. betrothed to him) he returned to take her to himself to wife; and it seems, adds he, that twelve months were given her to prepare herself; and some considerable time must have elapsed, as appears from what had happened to the carcass of the lion, next related: and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion : just before he came to Timnath he thought of the lion he had slain some time ago, and he went a little out of the way to see what was become of it, or had happened to it.
Josephus says f284 , when he slew it he threw it into a woody place, perhaps among some bushes, a little out of the road; for which reason it had not been seen and removed, and was in a more convenient place for what was done in it: and, behold, [there was] a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion ; and though naturalists tell us that bees are averse to flesh, and will not touch any, yet in the course of time that the carcass of this lion had lain, its flesh might have been clean eaten off by the fowls of the air, or was quite dried away and consumed, so that it was nothing but a mere skeleton; a bony carcass, as the Syriac version. Josephus says, the swarm was in the breast of the lion; and it is no more unlikely that a swarm of bees should settle in it, and continue and build combs, and lay up their honey there, than that the like should be done in the skull of Onesilus king of Cyprus, when hung up and dried, as Herodotus relates. Besides, according to Virgil f288 , this was a method made use of to produce a new breed of bees, even from the corrupt gore and putrid bowels of slain beasts; and Pythagoras observes, they are produced from thence. This may be an emblem of those sweet blessings of grace, which come to the people of Christ through his having destroyed Satan the roaring lion, and all his works; particularly which came to the poor Gentiles, when the devil was cast out from them, and his empire there demolished.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 5-9 - By enabling him to kill a lion, God let Samson know what he could do in the strength of the Spirit of the Lord, that he might never be afrai to look the greatest difficulties in the face. He was alone in the vineyards, whither he had rambled. Young people consider not how the exposed themselves to the roaring lion that seeks to devour, when the wander from their prudent, pious parents. Nor do men consider what lions lurk in the vineyards, the vineyards of red wines. Our Lord Jesu having conquered Satan, that roaring lion, believers, like Samson, fin honey in the carcass abundant strength and satisfaction, enough for themselves, and for all their friends.
Original Hebrew
וישׁב 7725 מימים 3117 לקחתה 3947 ויסר 5493 לראות 7200 את 853 מפלת 4658 האריה 738 והנה 2009 עדת 5712 דבורים 1682 בגוית 1472 האריה 738 ודבשׁ׃ 1706
