Judges 14:18
And they on the seventh day before the sun went down said to him: What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them: If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle.
Open Judges 14:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et illi dixerunt ei die septimo ante solis occubitum : Quid dulcius melle, et quid fortius leone ? Qui ait ad eos : Si non arassetis in vitula mea, non invenissetis propositionem meam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς πόλεως ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ πρὸ τοῦ ἀνατεῖλαι τὸν ἥλιον Τί γλυκύτερον μέλιτος, καὶ τί ἰσχυρότερον λέοντος; καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Σαμψών Εἰ μὴ ἠροτριάσατε ἐν τῇ δαμάλει μου, οὐκ ἂν ἔγνωτε τὸ πρόβλημά μου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֣אמְרוּ לוֹ֩ אַנְשֵׁ֨י הָעִ֜יר בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י בְּטֶ֨רֶם֙ יָבֹ֣א הַחַ֔רְסָה מַה מָּת֣וֹק מִדְּבַ֔שׁ וּמֶ֥ה עַ֖ז מֵאֲרִ֑י וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לָהֶ֔ם לוּלֵא֙ חֲרַשְׁתֶּ֣ם בְּעֶגְלָתִ֔י לֹ֥א מְצָאתֶ֖ם חִידָתִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Down, at which time the day ended among the Jews.
Heifer. This proverbial expression means, that another's property had been used against himself; (Delrio adag.162) or it may intimate, that improper liberties had been taken with Samson's wife, (Calmet) as her so readily taking one of them for her husband, (ver. 20) might lead us to suspect. (Haydock)
The Greek and Latin authors speak of a faithless wife in similar terms. (Theognis. lviii., &c.)
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.