to the children 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 thee? And she wept
before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass
on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore: and
she told the riddle to the children of her people. 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.

And the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to
Ashkelon, and smote thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave
the changes of raiment unto them that declared the riddle. And his anger
was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. But Samson's wife was
given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that
Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife
into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. And her
father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her;
therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer
than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. And Samson said unto
them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when
I do them a mischief. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes,
and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the
midst between every two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire,
he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up
both the shocks and the standing corn, and also the oliveyards. Then the
Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they said, Samson, the son in
law of the Timnite, because he hath taken his wife, and given her to his
companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father
with fire. And Samson said unto them, If ye do after this manner, surely
I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. And he smote them
hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the
cleft of the rock of Etam.

V

THE EXPEDITION AGAINST ELISHA

Now the king of Syria warred against Israel: and he took counsel with
his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the