After
this God raised up Samson to deliver the children of Israel from the
Philistines. God gave Samson very great strength, but God had said his strength
would leave him if his head were shaved.
One
day Samson went down to Timnath, and a young lion came out of the vineyards,
and as Samson passed by, the lion roared at him.
And
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion as he would
have rent a kid, and he had no weapon in his hand. But he told no one what he
had done.
After
a time he returned, and he went to look at the carcase of the lion, and there
was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
And
he took some of the honey and he went on his way eating it.
Then
Samson asked his friends a riddle about the lion, saying, “Out of the eater
came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” But they could
not tell the meaning of the riddle, until Samson told his wife, and she told
them.
So
they came to Samson and said, “What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger
than a lion?”
And Samson
was angry with his wife, and said to them, “If ye had not ploughed with my
heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.”
Judges
14:5-18