16Then 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?”
17She 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.
18Before 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!”
“Samson’s Philistine wife knew how to manipulate the situation and how to make herself a burden to her husband until she got what she wanted from him.” (Guzik)
“A woman easily manipulated the world’s strongest man. This weakness of Samson will later be the cause of his downfall. (Guzik)
“The willingness of Samson’s Philistine wife to side with her people against Samson shows a fundamental weakness in their marriage. She did not fulfill the idea essential to marriage of leaving one’s father and mother to be joined in a one flesh relationship to their spouse (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5). Yet this also shows why it was wrong for Samson to marry a Philistine. We cannot expect someone who does not love the God of Israel to build a marriage on God’s principles.” (Guzik)
“If you had not plowed with my heifer, You would not have solved my riddle: Samson’s use of this proverb showed the anger and bitterness he felt at being manipulated. Samson’s wife “won” what she wanted through manipulation, but she lost her husband’s heart.” (Guzik)
Honesty is the best policy in a marriage, manipulation brings resentment and destruction as we will soon study in the rest of the story.
I wonder what could have been, if Samson’s wife told him the truth?
Blessings
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