1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a woman from among the daughters of the Philistines.
2 He came back up and told his father and mother, "There is a woman in Timnah I saw, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now get her for me as a wife."
3 His father and mother said to him, "Is there no woman among your kinsmen's daughters or among all my people, that you are going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" Samson told his father, "Get her for me; she is the one who pleases me."
4 His father and mother did not know that this came from the LORD, who was looking for an opening against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling Israel.
5 Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. As they came to the vineyards of Timnah, there was a young lion roaring as it came at him.
6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion apart the way one rips a young goat, with nothing in his hand. But he did not let his father or his mother know what he had done.
7 He went down and spoke with the woman, and she pleased Samson.
8 When he came back some time later to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass, and in the lion's body was a swarm of bees, and honey.
9 He scooped it into his palms and walked on, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate; but he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey out of the lion's body.
10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson held a feast there, since that was what young men did.
11 When the people saw him, they took thirty companions, and they were with him.
12 Samson said to them, "Let me pose a riddle to you. If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothing.
13 If you cannot give me the answer, you will give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothing." They said to him, "Pose your riddle; let us hear it."
14 He said to them, "From the eater came something to eat; from the strong came something sweet." For three days they could not explain the riddle.
15 On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband into telling us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house. Was it to make us poor that you invited us here?"
16 Samson's wife wept on him and said, "You just hate me; you do not love me. You posed a riddle to my people's sons, and to me you have not explained it." He said to her, "I have not explained it to my father or my mother, and I should explain it to you?"
17 She wept on him for the seven days of their feast, and on the seventh day he told her, since she had nagged him so; and she explained the riddle to her people's sons.
18 On the seventh day, before the sun went down, the men of the city said to him, "What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "Had you not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
19 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him; he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their gear, and gave the sets of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house.
20 And Samson's wife went to his companion, the one who had been his friend.