Judges 14:15
And when the seventh day came, they said to the wife of Samson: Soothe thy husband, and persuade him to tell thee what the riddle meaneth. But if thou wilt not do it, we will burn thee, and thy father's house. Have you called us to the wedding on purpose to strip us?
Open Judges 14:15 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque adesset dies septimus, dixerunt ad uxorem Samson : Blandire viro tuo et suade ei ut indicet tibi quid significet problema : quod si facere nolueris, incendemus te, et domum patris tui : an idcirco vocastis nos ad nuptias ut spoliaretis ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τετάρτῃ καὶ εἶπαν τῇ γυναικὶ Σαμψών Ἀπάτησον δὴ τὸν ἄνδρα σου καὶ ἀπαγγειλάτω σοι τὸ πρόβλημα, μή ποτε κατακαύσωμέν σε καὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός σου ἐν πυρί· ἢ ἐκβιάσαι ἡμᾶς κεκλήκατε;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִ֣י בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י וַיֹּאמְר֤וּ לְאֵֽשֶׁת שִׁמְשׁוֹן֙ פַּתִּ֣י אֶת אִישֵׁ֗ךְ וְיַגֶּד לָ֨נוּ֙ אֶת הַ֣חִידָ֔ה פֶּן נִשְׂרֹ֥ף אוֹתָ֛ךְ וְאֶת בֵּ֥ית אָבִ֖יךְ בָּאֵ֑שׁ הַלְיָרְשֵׁ֕נוּ קְרָאתֶ֥ם לָ֖נוּ הֲלֹֽא
Haydock's commentary
Seventh day of the week, (Salien) which was the fourth of the feast; and the Syriac, Arabic, and some editions of the Septuagint read, "the fourth." The young men tried their skill for three days; when, despairing of success, they solicited Samson's wife to draw the secret from him. She tried; but the seventh day being come, or at hand, (Menochius) the men began to threaten her, so that she became more importunate, and obtained her request. She had been weeping during a great part of the seven days, (ver. 17.; Calmet) or perhaps she had begun to tease him from the beginning. (Menochius)
Strip us. Septuagint, "to impoverish us." Homer (Odyssey Z.) insinuates, that it was customary for the bride to furnish her attendants with white linen garments. These companions of Samson fear that they are going to be losers, by the honour which they do him. (Calmet)
They compel his wife by threats to betray his secret, and still destroy her afterwards: thus persecutors frequently treat those who comply with they demands, and deny the faith. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Irenaeus Fragments from the Lost Writings of, XL
“And he found the jaw-bone of an ass.” It is to be observed that, after [Samson had committed] fornication, the holy Scripture no longer speaks of the things happily accomplished by him in connection with the formula, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” For thus, according to the holy apostle, the sin of fornication is perpetrated against the body, as involving also sin against the temple of God.