Judges 14 - Easy To Read Version Easy To Read Version
Judges 14

¹ Samson went down to the city of Timnah. He saw a young Philistine woman there.

² When he got back home he said to his father and mother, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. I want you to get her for me. I want to marry her.”

³ His father and his mother answered, “But surely there is a woman from the people of Israel that you can marry. Do you have to marry a woman from the Philistine people? Those people are not even circumcised.” [109]

⁴ (Samson’s parents did not know that the Lord wanted this to happen. The Lord was looking for a way to do something against the Philistine people. The Philistine people were ruling over the people of Israel at that time.)

⁵ Samson went down with his father and mother to the city of Timnah. They went as far as the grape fields near that city. At that place, a young lion suddenly roared and jumped at Samson!

⁶ The Spirit of the Lord came on Samson with great power. He tore the lion apart with his bare hands. It seemed easy to him. It was as easy as tearing apart a young goat. But Samson did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

⁷ So Samson went down to the city and talked to the Philistine woman. She pleased him.

⁸ Several days later, Samson came back to marry the Philistine woman. On his way, he went over to look at the dead lion. He found a swarm of bees in the dead lion’s body. They had made some honey.

⁹ Samson got some of the honey with his hands. He walked along eating the honey. When he came to his parents, he gave them some of the honey. They ate it too. But Samson did not tell his parents that he had taken the honey from the body of the dead lion.

¹⁰ Samson’s father went down to see the Philistine woman. The custom was for the bridegroom to give a party. So Samson gave a party.

¹¹ When the {Philistine} people saw that he was having a party, they sent 30 men to be with him.

¹² Then Samson said to the 30 men, “I want to tell you a story. This party will last for seven days. Try to find the answer during that time. If you can answer the riddle in that time, I will give you 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.

¹³ But if you can’t find the answer, then you must give me 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.” So the 30 men said, “Tell us your riddle, we want to hear it.”

¹⁴ Samson told them this riddle:

¹⁵ On the fourth day, [110] the men came to Samson’s wife. They said, “Did you invite us here just to make us poor? You must trick your husband into telling us the answer to the riddle. If you don’t get the answer for us, we will burn you and all the people in your father’s house to death.”

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife went to him and began crying. She said, “You just hate me! You don’t really love me! You told my people a riddle, and you won’t tell me the answer.”

¹⁷ Samson’s wife cried for the rest of the seven days of the party. So he finally gave her the answer to the riddle on the seventh day. He told her because she kept bothering him. Then she went to her people and told them the answer to the riddle.

¹⁸ So before the sun went down on the seventh day of the party, the Philistine men had the answer. They came to Samson and said,

¹⁹ Samson was very angry. The Spirit of the Lord came on Samson with great power. He went down to the city of Ashkelon. In that city he killed 30 {Philistine} men. Then he took all of the clothes and property from the dead bodies. He brought those clothes back and gave them to the men that had answered his riddle. Then he went to his father’s house.

²⁰ Samson did not take his wife. The best man at the wedding kept her.