There was once a man called Manoah who lives in Zorah. Manoah and his wife have no children.
One day, while Manoah’s wife was in the field, an angel appeared to her.
The angel said, “You are barren now but you will soon become pregnant with a son. You will call him Samson. The power of the Lord will be with him. He will not be allowed to drink strong drinks and his hairs cannot be cut lest the strength of the Lord will leave him.”
She was so excited and went to told Manoah about it. Manoah prayed, “Lord, please make the angel who spoke to my wife appear again.”
When Manoah and his wife were in the field, the angel appeared.
Manoah said, “Are you the angel that spoke with my wife?”
The angel replied, “Yes.”
Manoah said, “May what you have said come to pass.”
And so Manoah’s wife conceived and bore a son. They called him Samson.
As Samson grew, the Lord blessed him. The Spirit of the Lord filled Samson and he began to move within him.
One day, Samson traveled to the town of Timnah. While he was there, he fell in love with one of the Philistine woman.
Then Samson said to his parents, “I am attracted to a Philistine woman. Please get her for me so that I can marry her.”
Samson’s father and mother, asked, “Can’t you take a woman from among our people? Why do you want to marry to the daughter of the uncircumcised Philistines?”
And Samson said, “I like the woman very much. She makes me feel happy. Get her for me.”
But Samson’s father and mother did not know that it was God that made Samson desire for the Philistine woman so that he can destroy the Philistine people. At that time, the Israelites were ruled by the Philistines.
Samson decided to go down to Timnah to see the Philistine woman.
On the way, a lion attacked Samson. The spirit of the Lord was upon Samson and Samson tore the lion into pieces without any weapon. Samson did not tell his parents about it.
When Samson arrives at the place, he went in and talked to the woman. The woman made Samson very happy and Samson is pleased with her.
After some time, Samson went down to Timnah again to marry the Philistine woman. While he was on his way, he saw honey in the carcass of the lion he killed.
Samson took some of the honey and ate it as he walk along. When Samson saw his father and mother, he gave some of the honey to them.
There were thirty young men present at Samson’s wedding. Samson decided to pose a riddle to them.
Samson said, “I will give you a riddle. If you can give me the correct answer to the riddle, I will give you thirty new linen garments and thirty new clothes. But if you cannot come up with an answer, you will give me thirty new linen garments and thirty new clothes.”
The thirty young men agreed with Samson. They said, “What is the riddle?”
So he said to them,
“The riddle is ‘Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness’” (King James Version. Judges 14:14)
The men couldn’t come up with the answer and so they pressured on Samson’s wife to give them the answer.
The men threatened to kill her family if she doesn’t give them the answer to the riddle.
She was very troubled so she nagged Samson day and night about it. Finally Samson gave in to his wife and told her answer to the riddle: lion.
The men told Samson the answer.
Then the Spirit of the Lord filled Samson and he went to Ashkelon to kill 30 Philistines.
Samson took their linen garments and clothing and gave them to the thirty men.
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