"And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you; if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then will I give you thirty sheets, and thirty change of garments. But if ye

cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it."

"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."

"And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle; lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire. Have ye called us to take that we have? Is it not so?"

"And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him. And she told the riddle to the children of her people."

"And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down;

What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion ?"

Samson knew that the secret of his riddle had been discovered by means of his wife, and reproached the Philistines with not being able to guess it: he, nevertheless, had to pay the forfeitprice agreed upon; and to do this, and at the same time to avenge himself upon this hostile nation, he went down to Askelon, a strong city of the Philistines, lying on the sea coast considerably to the south of Timnath, and there slew thirty men, and took their spoil, and thus gave change of garments to them which expounded the riddle. "And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house,” leaving his wife with her own kindred.

Some time after, when his anger was abated, Samson went again to Timnath, and demanded his wife but her father refused to give her to him. Enraged at this treatment, he took a cruel method of revenge. He caught three hundred foxes, and fastened them two and two together, and put firebrands between them, and then "let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives."

*

The Philistines revenged this injury upon the wife of Samson, and her father: they burnt her and her father with fire,' and thus terribly

Fores.'-Now supposed to be more correctly rendered, 'Jackals,' an animal abounding in Judea, living in holes in the mountains.

executed the threat which they had before used to terrify her to betray her husband: so seldom is it that a base compliance with a wicked command saves the coward from destruction! Whether the Philistines did this in anger, or to propitiate Samson, seems uncertain; in either case, Samson continued to attack them, and smote them with a great slaughter: he then went and dwelt in mount Etam, in the tribe of Judah.

If the conduct of Samson be regarded simply as that of a common individual, living in common times, there appears in it only the savage character of a wild and barbarous age, when an insult or injury was held to be a justifiable cause for indiscriminate revenge and slaughter. But there is another view in which this and other parts of his conduct, will appear in a different light. He knew himself to be endued with miraculous strength, in order that he might deliver his countrymen from the oppressive yoke of the Philistines; but the spirit of the Israelites appears to have been completely broken, and they viewed with dread and slavish terror, rather than with joy, the prospect of an open resistance to their terrible oppressors. We shall see that they blamed Samson for bringing upon them the indignation of the Philistines, and were even willing to deliver him up a prisoner into their hands. In such circumstances, he appears to have avoided attacking the Philistines on the ground of their tyranny over his country,

as, by so doing, he would have involved the Israelites generally in the consequences of his attack, whether it were successful, or unsuccessful: but he made occasion of quarrel, whenever opportunity served, in their conduct towards himself; and thus he executed his purpose of destroying the power of these warlike enemies, whilst he appeared to be merely following the blind impulse of personal revenge. In this manner the people escaped the fury of the Philistines; while Samson, secure in his miraculous strength, set their power openly at defiance.

On Samson's removing to the rock Etam, after the slaughter of the Philistines, this warlike nation assembled their forces, and came to Lehi, in the tribe of Judah, near to the spot where Samson had taken refuge. "And the men of Judah said, why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us?"

"And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them."

"And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves."

"And they spoke unto him, saying, No: but

we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand; but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock."

"And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking that he cast away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi."

Being overcome with thirst after the fearful combat, Samson prayed to God for relief, who caused water to gush out of a rock, of which he drank, when his spirit and strength returned, and he revived.*

The next instance recorded of Samson's strength is the carrying away the Gates of

*In the common version the water is said to come out of "the jaw :" but this is stated by Dr. Hales and all modern commentators to be an erroneous translation. Lehi means "the jaw-bone in Hebrew; the place being so called by Samson in commemoration of his victory, and the instrument by which he achieved it but it is the place, Lehi, and not the jaw-bone, from which the water came; and in the latter part of the verse the same word is so rendered.