[circa 1140 BC] Verse 1:[1] But it came to pass within a while after, 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.
[When the days of the wheat harvest, etc.] The barley harvest was preceding this. Among the Jews the harvest was lasting for forty-nine days (Drusius).
In the time of wheat harvest; which circumstance is noted as the proper season for the following exploit.
[Desiring to visit, etc., וַיִּפְקֹ֙ד שִׁמְשׁ֤וֹן אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ֙ בִּגְדִ֣י עִזִּ֔ים[2]] And he visited (or, remembered [Jonathan, Syriac, Arabic]) his wife with a kid of the goats (Munster, Pagnine, Montanus, Tigurinus, Septuagint), that is, bearing with him the kid of a goat (Vatablus); that is, tender and unweaned (Bonfrerius). This was a gift with respect to those resources not to be despised, as Virgil testifies in Eclogues 2, Moreover, the two Fawns, not found in a valley safe to me, even now with coats sprinkled with white, suckle the teats of a sheep; which I keep for you. Of the she-goats is added because the Hebrew word, גדה [to be read גְּדִי, a kid] also comprehends lambs, as Kimchi noted (Grotius).
Into the chamber; into her proper chamber, which women had distinct and separate from the men’s.
[He prohibited] Hebrew: he did not give him,[3] that is, he did not permit (Piscator, Drusius). Thus in Genesis 20:6;[4] Exodus 12:23;[5] Judges 3:28[6] (Drusius).
[1] Hebrew: וַיְהִ֙י מִיָּמִ֜ים בִּימֵ֣י קְצִיר־חִטִּ֗ים וַיִּפְקֹ֙ד שִׁמְשׁ֤וֹן אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ֙ בִּגְדִ֣י עִזִּ֔ים וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָבֹ֥אָה אֶל־אִשְׁתִּ֖י הֶחָ֑דְרָה וְלֹֽא־נְתָנ֥וֹ אָבִ֖יהָ לָבֽוֹא׃
[2] פָּקַד can signify to visit, or to muster.
[3] Hebrew: וְלֹא־נְתָנוֹ.
[4] Genesis 20:6: “And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not (לֹא־נְתַתִּיךָ, gave I thee not)to touch her.”
[5] Exodus 12:23: “For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer (וְלֹ֤א יִתֵּן֙, will not give) the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”
[6] Judges 3:28b: “…And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not (וְלֹא־נָתְנוּ) a man to pass over.”