Samson's Silence Respecting the Honey
Thomas Kirk. Judges 14:1-20 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.… Two reasons may be given for it. 1. To secure that his parents might eat the honey. According to the ceremonial law, the honeycomb, from its having been in contact with a dead body, was unclean, and the likelihood is that, if the parents of Samson had known the fact, they would have refused to eat it. Such a motive for his silence would be indeed discreditable; but it does not seem likely that such minute particulars of ceremonial observance, in that degenerate period, would be present to the mind of a young man of about nineteen years of age. 2. The other reason — and probably the true one — is, that he might ensure the success of his riddle at the marriage feast. Samson was gifted with a quick wit and ready invention. He saw, as he walked along, how the circumstance of getting the honey out of the carcase of the lion might be turned into a riddle for the entertainment of his guests, and so, in order to make sure that no inkling of it might get abroad, he resolved to keep it a secret. He was manifestly a young man who could keep his own counsel. (Thomas Kirk.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. WEB: Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.