{ "schemaVersion": 1, "kind": "event", "id": "samson-timnah", "era": "conquest-judges", "order": 117, "title": "A wedding and a cycle of retaliation", "group": "judges-deliverers", "date": { "kind": "relative", "label": "Samson’s adulthood · Within Philistine rule" }, "pin": [ 34.910297, 31.784831 ], "pinConfidence": "Identified site", "pinPlace": "openbible-a21f909", "summary": "Samson seeks a Philistine wife at Timnah. A wedding riddle leads to threats, betrayal and killings. Further reprisals destroy crops and take lives, including his wife and her father. At Lehi, Samson defeats his attackers, then cries out for water and receives it.", "context": "The narrative speaks of the LORD working against Philistine rule through a troubled sequence of personal choices. It does not make every act of revenge a command from God. The closing twenty-year notice summarizes Samson’s judging rather than dating the wedding.", "question": "Where do you see God’s deliverance and human retaliation intertwined, and why should they be distinguished?", "locationNote": "Tel Batash identifies the Timnah in Samson’s account. Ashkelon, Etam and Lehi are other scenes; the city marker does not locate all of them or identify the Timnah in Genesis 38.", "passages": [ { "reference": "Judges 14:1–15:20", "range": [ 7014001, 7015020 ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2014%3A1%E2%80%9315%3A20&version=BSB", "availability": "bundled", "verses": [ { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 1, "text": "One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 2, "text": "So he returned and told his father and mother, “I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 3, "text": "But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 4, "text": "(Now his father and mother did not know this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.)" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 5, "text": "Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him," }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 6, "text": "and the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 7, "text": "Then Samson continued on his way down and spoke to the woman, because she was pleasing to his eyes." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 8, "text": "When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 9, "text": "So he scooped some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along. And when he returned to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 10, "text": "Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 11, "text": "And when the Philistines saw him, they selected thirty men to accompany him." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 12, "text": "“Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 13, "text": "But if you cannot solve it, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.” “Tell us your riddle,” they replied. “Let us hear it.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 14, "text": "So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” For three days they were unable to explain the riddle." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 15, "text": "So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 16, "text": "Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 17, "text": "She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and finally on the seventh day, because she had pressed him so much, he told her the answer. And in turn she explained the riddle to her people." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 18, "text": "Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” So he said to them: “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 19, "text": "Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And burning with anger, Samson returned to his father’s house," }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 14, "verse": 20, "text": "and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 1, "text": "Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 2, "text": "“I was sure that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 3, "text": "Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless in doing harm to the Philistines.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 4, "text": "Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 5, "text": "Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 6, "text": "“Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,” they were told. “For his wife was given to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 7, "text": "And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 8, "text": "And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 9, "text": "Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves near the town of Lehi." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 10, "text": "“Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 11, "text": "In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 12, "text": "But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 13, "text": "“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 14, "text": "When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 15, "text": "He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 16, "text": "Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 17, "text": "And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 18, "text": "And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”" }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 19, "text": "So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day." }, { "book": "Judges", "chapter": 15, "verse": 20, "text": "And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines." } ] } ], "related": [ { "range": [ 7013005, 7013005 ], "kind": "prophecy", "note": "The birth announcement explains Samson’s role in beginning deliverance from the Philistines.", "reference": "Judges 13:5", "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%2013%3A5&version=BSB" }, { "range": [ 5032035, 5032035 ], "kind": "teaching", "note": "The song’s statement about vengeance offers a theme to consider alongside the repeated personal reprisals.", "reference": "Deuteronomy 32:35", "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2032%3A35&version=BSB" } ], "places": [ { "id": "openbible-a21f909", "name": "Timnah (Samson)", "coordinate": [ 34.910297, 31.784831 ], "kind": "City", "confidence": "Identified site", "confidenceSource": "editorial", "sources": [ { "label": "OpenBible · Timnah (Samson)", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a21f909/timnah-1" } ] } ], "mapPeriod": "iron-i", "further": [ { "label": "OpenBible · Timnah (Samson)", "url": "https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a21f909/timnah-1" } ], "provenance": { "sources": [ { "name": "editorial", "ref": "content/authored/conquest-judges.json" } ], "review": "draft" }, "eraName": "Conquest & Judges", "interactiveUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?event=samson-timnah", "attribution": [ "Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.", "Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.", "Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm" ], "translation": "bsb", "url": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-timnah/", "markdownUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-timnah/index.md", "jsonUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/samson-timnah/index.json", "cautions": "Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.", "revision": "6e29a973de93fae2" }