Lange Commentary - Judges 14:15 - 14:20

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Lange Commentary - Judges 14:15 - 14:20


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The Philistines solve the riddle by means of treachery. Samson’s anger and payment of the forfeit

Jdg_14:15-20.

15And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice [Persuade] thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire: have ye called [invited] us to take that we have [plunder us]? is it not so? 16And Samson’s wife wept before him and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a [the] riddle unto the children [sons] of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? 17And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted [during which they had their feast]: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him [pressed him hard]: and she told the riddle to the children [sons] of her people. 18And the men of the city said unto 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 unto them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. 19And the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah] came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil [attire], and gave [the] change [changes] of garments unto them which expounded 20the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. But [And] Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend [who had attended him].

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg_14:15.— åַéֹּàîְøåּ . Dr. Cassel treats all that comes after the phrase, “and it came to pass on the seventh day,” down to the same phrase in Jdg_14:17, as parenthetic, and consequently renders åַéֹּàîְøåּ by the pluperfect: “and they tad said.” Cf. below.—Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

The æsthetic beauty and psychological truth which characterize the narrative notwithstanding its compressed brevity, and which would be incomparable even though the narrative were not found in the Bible, and had not divine truth for its contents and object, can scarcely be adequately pointed out, so manifoldly do they manifest themselves. The drama is represented with such historical life-likeness, and its development is so natural, that while no one could foresee why the wedding should give rise to a conflict, yet in the sequel it becomes manifest that its occurrence was unavoidable. Samson really loved the maiden of Timnah, and took the full measure of youthful delight in the nuptial banquet and festival; but it is impossible for an Israelite, as he is, to enter into any kind of close connection with the enemies and oppressors of his people, without getting into a conflict. It must never be supposed that covenants, even in the simplest relations of life, can be made with those who are opponents in principle and tyrants in disposition. No occasion is so slight, but it suffices to inflame the fires of antagonism. Samson is too genial of nature to be a far-seeing party man; but he deceived himself when he expected to find a covenant of love and fidelity in a Philistine family. The preventing cause lay not only in his opponents, but also in himself, in that he was always, even unconsciously, showing who he was. Everything appeared to be harmonious when he propounded the riddle. He did it in the most peaceful spirit, from the impulse of an active mind. But it immediately brought the hidden antagonism to light. For they to whom it was proposed for solution were Philistines. As such, they would at all events be put to shame, if they failed to solve it. At the same time, it is true, the nobility of Samson’s disposition reveals itself, in contrast with the vulgar natures of the Philistines. He, for his part, risks thirty times the value of what, in case of failure, each of the thirty has to pay. This is the very reason why, in their covetousness, they accept the wager. The result was natural. They cannot solve the riddle, but neither are they willing to admit this. They are too vain to be humbled by an alien, but especially too covetous to endure a loss. They therefore turn to Samson’s young wife. Had she not been a Philistine, they would not have dared to do this. But, as it is, they expect to find in her an ally against the Israelite, even though he be her husband. She seems indeed to have resisted for a while,—until they arouse both her fears and her vanity. Her fears, by the threat to burn her father’s house over her head; her vanity, by hinting that probably the riddle was only put forth in order to plunder the guests. The latter suspicion she may have found especially intolerable, women being ever peculiarly sensitive to similar surmises of village slander-mongers. Perhaps, however, she merely invented these threatening speeches afterwards, in order to pacify Samson. For else, why did she not confess the truth to Samson? That alone would have ended the trouble. Either he would have felt himself strong enough to protect her, and to humble the miserable enemies, or he would have consented to the sacrifice of appearing to be vanquished. But she did not do this, just because she did not forget that she was a Philistine. Samson, she conjectured, would not allow himself to be humbled. She sought, therefore, to persuade him by means of that very antagonism for the sake of which she betrayed him. She complained, weeping, that he still treated her like her countrymen, and also kept from her that which he would not tell them. She desires to make it appear that her love has so entirely brought her over to his interests, that she thought not to be put on the same footing with her countrymen. This would have been the right relation. The wife may assist no party but that of her husband. But she only dissembled, in order to betray. Finally, on the seventh day,—the sun was already declining,—she had so tormented the hero, that he told it to her. He had a heart not only great, but also tender, which at last succumbs to the prayers and tears of the wife whom he loves and holds to be true. The treachery is completed. The miserable Philistines act as if they had themselves found the solution, and claim the reward. Then a light goes up for Samson. He sees the whole contrast,—the incongruity and error of a covenant with Philistines. Before the treason of which he has been made the subject, the mists with which a seductive sensuality had obscured, his vision are scattered. National wrath and national strength awake within him. His whole greatness reveals itself. He does not refuse the Philistines the promised reward. But the manner in which it is given, is full of contempt and humiliation. He throws to them the spoils of thirty slain Philistines. He leaves the woman, and returns to Israel. The conflict has begun, and Samson’s true calling becomes manifest. He who wears the consecration of God on his head, cannot revel in the houses of Philistines.

Jdg_14:15. And it came to pass on the seventh day. More recent expositors have made no remarks on this difficult statement. To assume that the Philistines first applied themselves to the woman on the seventh day, is rendered impossible by Jdg_14:17, which says that she wept before Samson “seven days.” The LXX. therefore, read here, “on the fourth day,” because Jdg_14:14 states that for three days they were not able to find the solution. Considering how easily ã and æ may be interchanged, the substitution of “seven” for “four” appears very likely. But the clearer it seems that the reading should be, “on the fourth day,” the more surprising it is that the Masora retained “on the seventh day.” The Masora, however, supposed the Sabbath to be meant by the seventh day,—an opinion also followed by some of the older expositors (cf. Serarius), but which cannot be correct. For in Jdg_14:17 a “seventh day” is again mentioned, which cannot, however, be another Sabbath; for as the first “seventh day” is, by the supposition, the fourth, so this second is the seventh, day of the wedding-feast. The reading “on the seventh day” can be retained, if the passage which begins immediately after it in Jdg_14:15, and extends to the same phrase in Jdg_14:17, be regarded as a sort of parenthesis. The writer was already on the point of stating that after they had ineffectually puzzled over it for three days, Samson on the seventh day told it to his wife, when it occurred to him first to interpose the statements of Jdg_14:15-17, as showing the motives by which Samson was influenced. Accordingly, “on the seventh day,” in Jdg_14:17, only continues what the same words in Jdg_14:15 had begun. The statement in the parenthesis that she wept before him “seven days,” falls in with this view. The idea is, that from the time at which she began, she continued to torment him throughout the whole seven-day period of the feast. Throughout the whole week, therefore, instead of cheerful guests, Samson had sullen Philistine faces, and, instead of a happy wife, crocodile tears and reproaches.

Persuade thy husband, that he declare unto us the riddle. ôַּúִּé , persuade; most frequently, it is true, “befool,” “entice by flattery.” Very significant is the expression, “that he declare unto us the riddle.” If he tells it to her, they intimate, he will have told it to them. For do not they and she constitute an “us?” She belongs to them, and must act accordingly, if she would not incur their enmity against herself and her house.

Have ye invited us to plunder us? is it not so? äַìְéָøְùֵׁðåּ is the kal infinitive with suffix, and is to be derived from éָøַùׁ , to inherit, to get by conquest, to take into possession. The word is aptly chosen here. When Israel was taking possession of the land, éָøַùׁ was a word in constant use. The Philistines mockingly ask whether they were invited that Israel, in the person of Samson, might “conquer,” “inherit,” their property. äֲìֹà , at the close, is an interrogative particle, like the Latin ne, used enclitically.

Jdg_14:16. Thou dost but hate me, ùְׂðֵàúַðִé . Samson, she intimates, must look on her as one looks on a person who belongs to a hostile tribe, seeing that he conceals the solution of the riddle from her as well as from the other people of the city. The woman, pressed to decide between her people and Samson, inclines to the Philistines. A lesson for Samson and others like him.

Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother. It is true, he deferred not to father and mother in the matter of his marriage, but not from want of reverence for them. They are his most beloved. To them he brings of the honey. (Very insipidly, Josephus adds here that he brought honey to the woman also.) And the woman, in the midst of her flatteries and tears, must endure to hear him say to her: Have I not told it to my parents, and shall I tell it to thee? To be sure, it would have been inexcusable to have put his parents—and such parents!—on the same level with a Philistine woman.

Jdg_14:18. Before the sun went down. Here also we have the poetical name çַøְñָä (instead of the form çֶøֶñ ), for the sun, cf. on Jdg_8:13. Beautiful is the expression áּåֹà , to come, for “to set.” The sun comes home, as it were—comes into his house, like a bridegroom after his wedding. On the other hand, when the sun rises, the Hebrew says that he “goes forth” into activity, forth for victory like a hero.

Had ye not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. The answer of the angry Samson is elegantly couched in the form of a proverb, full of spirit, as are all his sayings which have been preserved. It starts from the experience that buried treasures come to light, when the soil is turned by the plough. (Tages, the Roman Genius, was fabled to have been thus ploughed up.) But not every one knows where to draw the furrow. The Philistines would not have known it; but his heifer had shown them the way. The comparison is not very flattering to the traitoress, but quite appropriate. For no merit accrues to the heifer when it ploughs the right furrow: it has been shown to it. So also the woman: she has solved nothing, but only played the traitor.

Jdg_14:19. And he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them. Why to Ashkelon? Against the people of Timnah he could not turn his wrath. He had eater with them, and he would not withdraw himself from the obligations he had assumed. But their conduct had awakened him to a sense of the great national contrast between them and Israel. At this moment he felt that Israel lay in the bands of servitude. Between his people and the Philistines no other treaty existed, than that which is made by the cowardly and the God-forsaken with their enemies. Israel endured servitude, because it had fallen away from its ancient spirit. It ventured no longer on resistance.

All this came home to Samson’s mind at this moment. He determined to give a proof of Israelitish strength. Hence we read, “the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him,” a remark always found where Israel manifests a determination to lift up heart and hand against the enemies of God. His relations would have advised him to collect money and buy the garments. It was a divine inspiration which moved him to pay by battle. Why did he go to Ashkelon? Because there were rich and valiant men there, whom it was worth while to attack and overcome. Probably it was a nuptial party, graced, as his own had been, with thirty attendant groom’s-men, that he surprised. It was not done in the midst of peace. There was no peace between Philistines and Israel. He conquered the thirty Philistines (members, perhaps, as we have said, of a nuptial train) with the sword, as he vanquished his own retinue in a conflict of intellect. The fame of the wonderful young Israelite resounds through the land. No reprisals are made. The princes of the Philistines look on the occurrence as a private affair. But a silent quaking of conscience, such as seizes on tyrants when a fresh spirit stirs itself among the oppressed, contributed no doubt to the preservation of repose.

Took their attire, çֲìִéöåֹúָí . Chalitsah ( çֲìִéöָä ) is the military equipment, of which the fallen are stripped, cf. 2Sa_2:21. There, the Sept. renders it ðáíïðëßá ; here, óôüëç . This supports the opinion of the Targum, adduced above, that the promise of Samson referred to military garments. For the chaliphoth (changes of garments) which he paid, were doubtless part of the chalitsoth, or military suits, which he took; so that Samson did not first sell his booty, and then buy new garments. It is in harmony with the dramatic course of the action, that Samson flung to his treacherous friends, as the price of their deception, garments snatched from their own countrymen.

And he went up to his father’s house. His wrath blazed up into a national flame against the Philistine brood. He turns his back upon them, and goes home. It seems to be his intention never to come back. How little they were worthy of him, is shown by the conduct of the woman, after his departure. That she may not be without a husband in consequence of her treason, she is rewarded with the hand of another man. One of the companions for whose sake she deceived Samson, marries her. To treason she adds infidelity. Meanness of disposition gives birth to everything that is bad. It can neither love nor be faithful; but least of all can it comprehend a man such as Samson was.

A survey of only that which chapter 14 shows of Samson, should have excited the attention of those who find pleasure in comparing him with Hercules. While all the ancient statements about the Greek hero have value only as the vehicles of mythico-symbolical ideas, Samson appears in the midst of history, wearing the living hues of actual existence. Hercules, the more the later Greeks take him historically, the more he assumes the character of a coarse giant and glutton, who, averse to culture, kills his master; while Samson is at once portrayed as a genial man, of noble disposition. It were more feasible to institute a comparison between Samson and many traits in the character of Ulysses, were it not that in the latter, as in Greek heroes generally, there is wanting the pathos of the national champion, and that elevation of spirit which, in the case of Samson, breaks through the fetters of even his deepest sensuality. It is already a misapprehension when some would assign twelve exploits to Samson, seeing that his whole life is given for a testimony; but when his slaying of the thirty Philistines is counted as the second (as e. g. by Bertheau), there is a want of understanding even of the Heraclean performances. These are a didactic poem; what is told of Samson, signifies an ethical deed. The deeds of Hercules have no mutual connection: those of Samson, ethico-historical in their nature, are conditioned one by the other. The succeeding history, related in chap, 15, connects itself with what has gone before.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

[Henry (on Jdg_14:10; Jdg_14:12): It is no part of religion to go contrary to the innocent usages of the places where we live; nay, it is a reproach to religion, when those who profess it give just occasion to others to call them covetous, sneaking, and morose. A good man should strive to make himself, in the best sense, a good companion.—The same: “If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle.” Satan, in his temptations, could not do us the mischief he does, if he did not plough with the heifer of our own corrupt nature.—The same: “And he went up to his father’s house.” It. were well for us, if the unkindness we meet with from the world, and our disappointments in it, had but this good effect upon us to oblige us by faith and prayer to return to our heavenly Father’s house, and rest there.—The same: “Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.” See how little confidence is to be put in man, when those may prove our enemies whom we have used as our friends.—Bp. Hall (on Jdg_14:19): If we wonder to see thirty throats cut for their suits, we may easily know that this was but the occasion of that slaughter whereof the cause was their oppression and tyranny.

Wordsworth: At the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee, Christ manifested forth his glory (Joh_2:11). But at this marriage in Timnath, Samson betrayed the first signs of moral weakness and degeneracy.—Tr.]

Footnotes:

[Jdg_14:15.— åַéֹּàîְøåּ . Dr. Cassel treats all that comes after the phrase, “and it came to pass on the seventh day,” down to the same phrase in Jdg_14:17, as parenthetic, and consequently renders åַéֹּàîְøåּ by the pluperfect: “and they tad said.” Cf. below.—Tr.]

Least correct of all would it be, with Lilienthal, to leave the words out because the Königsberg MSS. did not have them.

[Dr. Cassel’s explanation of this matter does not strike me favorably. It certainly fails to justify the remark of Jdg_14:17 : “she wept before him seven days.” The natural explanation seems to be this: As soon as the riddle was given, the young wife at once began to teaze for its solution. Refusal both stimulated her curiosity and wounded her vanity, so that even before the end of the first day she had recourse to the argument of tears. Day by day she renewed the assault, but always ineffectually. Finally, on the seventh day she brings a new argument, furnished her by the guests. For the first three days of the festivities these had sought to solve the riddle in a legitimate way. Such appears to be the import of the remark in Jdg_14:14 : “and they could not in three days expound the riddle.” What they did on the next three days is not stated. They may have remained inactive, trusting in some way to compass the solution at last, or they may have been already ploughing with Samson’s heifer. But if the latter, they had not yet recourse to threats. On the last day of the feast, however, when they find that waiting has been as ineffective as working, and that the wife’s importunities (of which they were probably cognizant, even though they did not stimulate them), have likewise accomplished nothing, they resort to threats against the wife. The latter thereupon becomes more urgent and tearful than ever, and gains her point. Compare Bertheau and Keil, who give essentially the same explanation.—Tr.]