Samson went to Timnath and saw in Timnath a woman from the daughters of the Philistines and he liked her. He went and announced to his father and his mother and said:
“I saw in Timnath a woman from the daughters of the Philistines; take her to be my wife.
His father and mother said to him:
“Are there not women among the daughters of your brothers and among all my people, that you are going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”
And Samson said to his father:
- Take it to me, because I liked it.
His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, and that he was looking for an opportunity to take revenge on the Philistines. And at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
And Samson went with his father and his mother to Timnath, and as they approached the vineyards of Timnath, behold, a young lion came roaring towards him. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he tore the lion to pieces like a kid; but he had nothing in his hand. And he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. And he came and spoke to the woman, and Samson liked her.
A few days later, he went again to take it, and went to look at the lion’s corpse, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the lion’s corpse and honey. He took it in his hands and went and ate on the way; and when he came to his father and mother, he gave it to them, and they ate; but he did not tell them that he took this honey from the lion’s corpse.
And his father came to the woman, and Samson held a seven-day feast there, as suitors are wont to do. And when they saw him there, they chose thirty marriage friends who would be with him. And Samson said to them:
- I’ll tell you a riddle; if you guess it for me during the seven days of the feast and guess it correctly, then I will give you thirty sindons and thirty changes of clothes; if you cannot guess it for me, then give me thirty sindons and thirty changes of clothes.
They told him:
- Tell me your riddle, let's listen.
And he said to them:
“From the poisonous came the poisonous, and from the strong came the sweet.”
And they couldn’t solve the riddle in three days. On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife:
- Persuade your husband to solve the riddle for us; Otherwise we will burn you and your father’s house with fire; did you call us to rob us?
And Samson’s wife wept before him and said:
- You hate me and don’t love me; You have asked a riddle for the sons of my people, but you will not solve it for me.
He told her:
“I didn’t figure it out for my father and my mother; and will I tell it to you?
And she wept before him for seven days, during which their feast continued. Finally, on the seventh day, he revealed it to her, for she strenuously asked him. And she unraveled the riddle to the sons of her people.
And on the seventh day before sunset the citizens said to him:
- What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion!
He told them:
“If you hadn’t screamed on my heifer, you wouldn’t have guessed my riddle.”
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went to Ascalon, and, having killed thirty people there, took off their clothes, and gave the changes of their clothes to those who had solved the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went to his father’s house. And Samsonov’s wife married his marriage partner, who was his friend.
During the wheat harvest, Samson came to see his wife, bringing with him a kid; and when he said: “I will go into my wife’s bedroom,” her father did not allow him to enter. And her father said:
“I thought that you hated it, and I gave it to your friend; behold, the younger sister is more beautiful than she; let it be for you instead of her.
But Samson said to them:
“Now I will be right before the Philistines if I do them harm.”
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and tied tail to tail, and tied a torch between the two tails; and he lit torches and sent them into the Philistine harvest, and burned the heaps and unharvested grain, and the vineyards and olive trees.
And the Philistines said:
- Who did this?
And they said:
“Samson, son-in-law of the Timnathite, for he took his wife and gave him to his friend.”
And the Philistines went and burned her and her father's house with fire.
Samson told them:
“Although you did this, I will take revenge on you myself and only then will I calm down.”
And he broke their legs and thighs, and went and sat down in the gorge of the rock of Etam. And the Philistines went and encamped in Judah, and extended as far as Lehi. And the inhabitants of Judah said:
-Why did you come out against us?
They said:
“We came to bind Samson to do to him as he did to us.”
And three thousand men from Judea went to the gorge of the rock of Etam and said to Samson:
“Don’t you know that the Philistines rule over us?” Why did you do this to us?
He told them:
“As they did to me, so I did to them.”
And they said to him:
“We have come to bind you, to deliver you into the hands of the Philistines.”
And Samson said to them:
- Swear to me that you will not kill me.
And they said to him:
- No, we will only tie you up and give you into their hands, but we will not kill you.
And they tied him with two new ropes and led him out of the gorge.
When he approached Lehi, the Philistines greeted him with shouts. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and the cords that were on his hands became like burnt flax, and his bands fell from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and, stretching out his hand, took it and killed a thousand people with it. And Samson said:
“With the jaws of a donkey, two crowds, with the jaws of a donkey I killed a thousand people.”
Having said this, he threw the jaw out of his hand and named the place: Ramath-Lehi.
And he felt very thirsty and cried out to the Lord and said:
- You have wrought this great salvation with the hand of Your servant; and now I will die of thirst, and will fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.
And God opened a pit in Lech, and water flowed out of it. He got drunk, and his spirit returned, and he came to life; That is why the name of this place was called “The Fountain of the One Who Cries,” which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru