ion against the Philistines. Now at that time the
Philistines had rule over Israel.

Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and
came to the vineyards of Timnah: {173} and, behold, a young lion roared
against him. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he
tore him as he would have torn a kid, and he had nothing in his hand:
but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went
down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a
while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of
the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the
lion, and honey. And he took it into his hands, and went on, eating as
he went, and he came to his father and mother, and gave unto them, and
they did eat: but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of
the body of the lion.

And his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast;
for so used the young men to do. And it came to pass, when they saw him,
that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to
them, "Let me now put forth a riddle for you: if ye can declare it unto
me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give
you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment: but if ye
cannot declare it to me, then shall ye give me thirty linen garments and
thirty changes of raiment."

And they said to him, "Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And
he said to them,--

"Out of the eater came forth food,
And out of the strong came forth sweetness."

And they could not in three days declare the riddle.

{174}

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's
wife, "Entice thy husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest
we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to
impoverish us?"

And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "Thou dost but hate me,
and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of
my people, and hast not told it me."

And he said to her, "Behold, I have not told it to my father nor my
mother, and shall I tell it to 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 to him on the seventh day before the sun
went dow