القضاة ١٤:٣

His parents expressed their astonishment at the choice, and asked him whether there was not a woman among the daughters of his brethren (i.e., the members of his own tribe), or among all his people, that he should want to fetch one from the Philistines, the uncircumcised. But Samson repeated his request, because the daughter of the Philistines pleased him. The aversion of his parents to the marriage was well founded, as such a marriage was not in accordance with the law. It is true that the only marriages expressly prohibited in Exo 34:16 and Deu 7:3-4, are marriages with Canaanitish women; but the reason assigned for this prohibition was equally applicable to marriages with daughters of the Philistines. In fact, the Philistines are reckoned among the Canaanites in Jos 13:3 upon the very same ground. But Samson was acting under a higher impulse, whereas his parents did not know that it was from Jehovah, i.e., that Jehovah had so planned it; "for Samson was seeking an opportunity on account of the Philistines," i.e., an occasion to quarrel with them, because, as is afterwards added in the form of an explanatory circumstantial clause, the Philistines had dominion over Israel at that time. תּאנה, ἁπ. λεγ., an opportunity (cf. התאנּה, Kg2 5:7).

The idea which this chapter gives us of Samson is not what one might have expected concerning one who, by the special designation of heaven, was a Nazarite to God and a deliverer of Israel; and yet really he was both. Here is, I. Samson's courtship of a daughter of the Philistines, and his marriage to her (Jdg 14:1-5, Jdg 14:7, Jdg 14:8). II. His conquest of a lion, and the prize he found in the carcase of it (Jdg 14:5, Jdg 14:6, Jdg 14:8, Jdg 14:9). III. Samson's riddle proposed to his companions (Jdg 14:10-14) and unriddled by the treachery of his wife (Jdg 14:15-18). IV. The occasion this gave him to kill thirty of the Philistines (Jdg 14:19) and to break off his new alliance (Jdg 14:20).