Judges 14:10-20

GOD’S WORD Translation

¹⁰ After his father went to see the woman, Samson threw a party. (This is what young men used to do.) ¹¹ When ⌞her family⌟ saw him, they chose 30 of their friends to be with him.

¹² Then Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve it during the seven days of the party, I’ll give you 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes. ¹³ But if you can’t solve it, you will give me the same things.”

They responded, “Tell us your riddle! Let’s hear it!”

¹⁴ So Samson said to them,

For three days they couldn’t solve the riddle. ¹⁵ On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Trick your husband into solving the riddle for us. If you don’t, we’ll burn you and your family to death. Did the two of you invite us ⌞just to make us poor⌟?”

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife cried on his shoulder. She said, “You hate me! You don’t really love me! You gave my friends a riddle and didn’t tell me the answer.”

Samson replied, “I haven’t even told my father and mother, so why should I tell you?”

¹⁷ But she cried on his shoulder for the rest of the seven days of the party. Finally, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she made his life miserable. Then she told her friends the answer to the riddle.

¹⁸ So before sundown on the seventh day, the men of the city said to him,

Samson replied,

¹⁹ When the Lord’s Spirit came over him, he went to Ashkelon and killed 30 men there. He took their clothes and gave them to the men who solved the riddle. He was angry, and he went to his father’s house. ²⁰ Samson’s wife was given to his best man.