1Samson went down to Timnath. There he saw a woman, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
2He came back up and told his father and his mother. He said, "I have seen a woman in Timnath, one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now get her for me as my wife."
3Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your own people, or among all my people? Must you go and take a wife from the Philistines, who are not circumcised?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she pleases me well."
4His father and his mother did not know that this was from the LORD, and that he was looking for a reason to act against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
5So Samson went down to Timnath with his father and his mother. They came to the vineyards of Timnath, and look, a young lion came roaring at him.
6The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him, and he tore the lion apart as easily as if it were a young goat, and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
7He went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.
8After a while he came back to take her. He turned off the road to look at the dead body of the lion, and look, there was a swarm of bees in the lion's body, and honey.
9He scooped it out into his hands and went on his way, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.
10So his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for that is what the young men used to do.
11When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
12Samson said to them, "Let me set you a riddle. If you can tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, and work it out, then I will give you thirty linen sheets and thirty sets of clothes."
13"But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you must give me thirty linen sheets and thirty sets of clothes." They said to him, "Tell us your riddle. Let us hear it."
14He said to them, "Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness." For three days they could not explain the riddle.
15On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband, so that he tells us the riddle. If you do not, we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Did you invite us here to make us poor? Is that not so?"
16So Samson's wife wept in front of him and said, "You only hate me. You do not love me. You have set a riddle to the men of my people, and you have not told me the answer." He said to her, "Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?"
17She wept in front of him for the seven days their feast lasted. On the seventh day he told her, because she kept pressing him so hard. Then she told the riddle to the men of her people.
18On the seventh day, before the sun went down, the men of the city said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
19The Spirit of the LORD came on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men of them and took what they had, and gave the sets of clothes to those who had explained the riddle. His anger burned, and he went up to his father's house.
20But Samson's wife was given to his companion, the one he had treated as his friend.