And 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 plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.
On the seventh day, just before sunset, the men of the city came to him and said, 'What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?' Then he said to them, 'If you hadn't used my wife to get the answer, you never would have solved my riddle.'
The writer is showing how Samson's wedding guests cheated by getting his wife to reveal the answer to his riddle, and Samson angrily calls them out for it.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Judges, which recounts the period of Israel's history before the monarchy around 1100 BC, Samson was a Nazirite judge chosen by God to deliver Israel from Philistine oppression. During his wedding feast to a Philistine woman, which highlighted the tensions between Israelites and their oppressors, Samson proposed a riddle based on his personal encounter with a lion, wagering that the guests couldn't solve it. The Philistines, unable to answer on their own, coerced Samson's wife to reveal the solution, prompting his frustrated and cryptic response.
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