Judges 14:1-5

Samson’s Unconsummated Marriage

14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. ¹  14:2 When he got home, ²  he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. ³  Now get her for my wife.” 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ⁴  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ⁵  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ⁶  because she is the right one for me.” ⁷  14:4 Now his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord’s doing, ⁸  because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines ⁹  (for at that time the Philistines were ruling Israel).

14:5 Samson went down to Timnah. When he approached ¹⁰  the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a roaring young lion attacking him. ¹¹ 

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and he saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

[14:2]  ² tn Heb “and he went up.”

[14:2]  ³ tn Heb “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.”

[14:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “my.” The singular may seem strange, since the introduction to the quotation attributes the words to his father and mother. But Samson’s father apparently speaks for both himself and his wife. However, the Lucianic recension of the LXX and the Syriac Peshitta have a second person pronoun here (“you”), and this may represent the original reading.

[14:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is there not among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people a woman that you have to go to get a wife among the uncircumcised Philistines?”

[14:3]  ⁶ tn “Her” is first in the Hebrew word order for emphasis. Samson wanted this Philistine girl, no one else. See C. F. Burney, Judges, 357.

[14:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “because she is right in my eyes.”

[14:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “this was from the LORD.”

[14:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “for an opportunity he was seeking from the Philistines.”

[14:5]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads, “Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When they approached…” Verse 6b states that Samson did not tell his parents about his encounter with the lion (vv. 5b-6a), but v. 5a gives the impression they would have seen the entire episode. One could assume that Samson separated from his parents prior to the lion’s attack, but the Hebrew text does not indicate this. It seems more likely that the words “with his father and his mother” were accidentally copied into the text, perhaps under the influence of v. 4a, where the same phrase appears. An original singular verb (“he approached”) may have been changed to the plural form (“they approached”) after the words “his father and his mother” were accidentally added to the text.

[14:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and look, a young lion of the lions was roaring to meet him.”