Judges 14:14: Samson's Riddle, Part 2
- Dr. Dilday
- Dec 20, 2018
- 2 min read
Verse 14:[1] And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
[Out of the eater came forth food, מֵהָֽאֹכֵל֙ יָצָ֣א מַאֲכָ֔ל] There is an elegant Paronomasia[2] here, From the eater came forth something edible (Lapide).
[And from the strong, sweetness, וּמֵעַ֖ז יָצָ֣א מָת֑וֹק] From the strong, something sweet [thus nearly all interpreters]. A sweet, that is, a sweet thing (Vatablus). Not sweet, but weak/soft, is opposed to strong; but sharp or bitter is opposed to sweet. But sometimes these things are confounded, and bitter is taken for strong, and sharp for both. And thus in Arabic, mirra, that is, strength, and marir, that is, strong, powerful, is from the verb marra, which means to be bitter: and in Latin, acer/sharp is used of one that is strong; and among us acer is properly one that is δεινὸς/terrible/powerful among the Greeks: for it is able to signify strong, and vigorous, and sharp, and bitter. Therefore, Junius rightly translates it, ab acra, from a strong, came forth a sweet thing, and in verse 18, What is acrius/stronger than a lion? Thus Ovid, Festivals 4, the acre/strong stock of lions (Bochart’s Sacred Catalogue of Animals 2:4:12:522). [In the place of strong some have bitter: Thus the Syriac and Arabic.] Thus the Septuagint in some codices, as Gyraldus testifies. Which reading Ambrose added,[3] because the antithesis better stands between sweet and bitter. The עַז signifies strong:[4] although nothing prohibits one from understanding fortitude here, conjoined with a certain harshness and ferocity (for עַז is able to be translated, hard, fierce, intractable), and so bitter, to which among flavors sweet is opposed (Bonfrerius). עַז signifies both strong, and fierce and sharp, as in Genesis 49:7, …for it was fierce,[5] etc. (Piscator). The sense of the riddle is evident from what follows: From the eater, that is, a lion devouring all things, came forth food; and from the strong, that is, the same lion, honey. In verse 18, he only explains the latter part, from which the prior part is sufficiently understood (Bonfrerius). By this riddle is signified what was going to happen at length, that the Philistines, who were ruling over the Jews, would be conquered, and consumed by the Jews; and, although they were most fiercesome, they were going to be at last, not to the detriment of the Jews, but to their great advantage (Martyr). They explain it allegorically of Christ (see Bonfrerius).
Out of the eater, etc.: that is, Out of that strong and devouring creature, the lion, came forth sweet meat, to wit, honey; withal it is covertly implied, that the Philistines, though now they had strength on their side, and dominion over Israel, whom they did devour upon all occasions, yet at last they should become meat to the Israelites.
[1] Hebrew: וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לָהֶ֗ם מֵהָֽאֹכֵל֙ יָצָ֣א מַאֲכָ֔ל וּמֵעַ֖ז יָצָ֣א מָת֑וֹק וְלֹ֥א יָכְל֛וּ לְהַגִּ֥יד הַחִידָ֖ה שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת יָמִֽים׃
[2] That is, a play on words.
[3] On the Holy Spirit 2:7, 8.
[4] Judges 14:14b: “…Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong (וּמֵעַז) came forth sweetness.…”
[5] Hebrew: כִּ֣י עָ֔ז.
Lewis Stuckley's Gospel Glass: 'How ill are God's providences resented! Although God hath told you there is a beauty in their contexture, that "things present and things to come are yours," [1 Corinthians 3:22] that "all shall work together for good," [Romans 8:28] that your providential losses, as well as your providential enjoyments, that your changes, as well as your settlings, your wants, as well as your abundance, shall all be sanctified to you: yet how few, with that blessed man, "bless the Lord when taking away?" And with Paul, "rejoice, yea, glory in tribulations!" [Romans 5:2-3] God assures you that your sicknesses, reproaches, wants, shall do you good, yea, death shall do you good; all shall be good o…
Robert Hawker's Poor Man's Portions: '"An hireling his day."—Job 14:6
The sufferings of Job are proverbial; but the sermons of this exercised believer, though delivered from a dunghill, were sweet sermons. The figure of an hireling accomplishing his day (and that a day, both on account of original sin and actual transgression, fleeting and full of labour and sorrow) forms a just, though sad representation of human life. But this, like all the other circumstances of our fallen state, when read through the medium of the gospel, and softened and sweetened with the blood of Christ, puts on a different aspect. It is then found in its shortness to be the better, and in its crosses to be the more…
Jonathan Edwards' "The Excellency of Christ": 'It was in Christ's last sufferings, above all, that he was delivered up to the power of his enemies; and yet by these, above all, he obtained victory over his enemies. Christ never was so in his enemies' hands, as in the time of his last sufferings. They sought his life before; but from time to time they were restrained, and Christ escaped out of their hands; and this reason is given for it, that his time was not yet come. But now they were suffered to work their will upon him; he was in a great degree delivered up to the malice and cruelty of both wicked men and devils. And therefore whe…
Matthew Henry: 'Samson's riddle was his own invention, for it was his own achievement that gave occasion for it: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. Read my riddle, what is this? Beasts of prey do not yield meat for man, yet food came from the devourer; and those creatures that are strong when they are alive commonly smell strong and are every way offensive when they are dead, as horses, and yet out of the strong, or out of the bitter, so the Syriac and Arabic read it, came sweetness. If they had but so much sense as to consider what eater is most strong, and what meat is most sweet…