Samson’s Wedding Feast

In conjunction with his wedding to the Philistine woman, Samson hosts a feast that, according to custom, lasts seven days. To celebrate with him, the Philistines gather 30 young men. Matthew Henry speculates that these men may have the task of spying on Samson, but we have no reason to suspect that the Philistines distrust him at this point. Indeed, pagan peoples throughout Scripture always seem to welcome intermarriage with Israelites, so the Philistines may well be delighted at this compromise by one of God’s people. But the purposes of God are at work behind the scenes to judge Israel’s oppressor.

To entertain his guests, Samson poses a riddle based on his experiences with the lion. If his 30 companions can solve it by the end of the feast, he promises to give each a set of clothes, but if they cannot they each must give him an outfit. Not surprisingly, the riddle stumps the men, for it is based on Samson’s unique experience. Plus, the pictures it paints are confusing. “Beasts of prey do not yield meat for man, yet food came from the devourer,” Henry notes, “and those creatures mat are strong when they are alive commonly smell strong and are every way offensive when they are dead … and yet out of the strong, or out of the bitter, so the Syriac and Arabic read it, came sweetness.” Desperate, the men threaten to kill Samson’s wife and her family if she does not wheedle the answer out of him, a hideous step to take to save themselves the price of a set of clothing. She first argues that if Samson really loved her he would tell her the answer, but he replies that he has not even told his parents, much less his new wife, who is a virtual stranger to him because their marriage is arranged. So she resorts to continual nagging until Samson yields. She then passes the answer along and the men “solve” the riddle on the final day of the feast.

In that moment of betrayal, the Spirit comes upon Samson mightily, guiding him and enabling him to kill 30 Philistines in Ashkelon so as to give their garments to his 30 “friends.” He then moves back to his father’s house without his new wife, and her father, looking to save face, gives her to another

man. Samson’s eyes should now be open to the ruthlessness and underhandedness of the Philistines, and to the drawbacks to intermarriage with them. But his weaknesses remain. And God has only begun to use him to break the Philistine yoke.