Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 14:9
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.
9. And he took it had taken ] The word, which occurs only here (? in Jer 5:31), is used in the Talmud for taking honey out of the hive, detaching bread from the sides of the oven; so we may render he scraped off the honey into his palms. It is one of the household words of old Hebrew which rarely find their way into literature (Moore). For wild honey as food cf. 1Sa 14:25 ff., St Mar 1:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He took thereof in his hands, out of the lions carcass.
Quest. Did not Samson transgress in touching a carcass?
Answ. It was in itself a legal pollution; but some such pollutions were involuntary and unavoidable, as in one that hath an issue running in his sleep; and some were necessary duties, as in those who were to attend upon a woman in her month, or upon the burial of a dead body. And such was this pollution, being contracted by Divine instinct and direction, and in order to Gods honour, and therefore dispensed with by the author of that law, and required by him for his service.
Came to his father and mother; from whom he had turned aside for a season, Jdg 14:8, upon some pretence or other.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5-9. a young lionHebrew,a lion in the pride of his youthful prime. The wild mountain passesof Judah were the lairs of savage beasts; and most or all the “lions”of Scripture occur in that wild country. His rending and killing theshaggy monster, without any weapon in his hand, were accomplished bythat superhuman courage and strength which the occasionalinfluences of the Spirit enabled him to put forth, and by theexertion of which, in such private incidental circumstances, he wasgradually trained to confide in them for the more public work towhich he was destined.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating,…. Josephus k says he took three honeycombs, he means three pieces of the honeycomb, and ate the honey as he went along to Timnath; which he might do without touching the carcass of the lion, and defiling himself thereby, which, as a Nazarite, he was more especially to be careful of:
and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat; who went down with him to the consummation of the marriage, and from whom he had turned a little aside; and now overtook them, and to whom he gave some of his honey to eat, which, having travelled some way, might be grateful to them. The above writer takes no notice of this, but says he gave of it to the young woman whom he betrothed, when he came to her; but of that the text makes no mention:
but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion; either lest they should scruple eating it, being taken out of such a carcass; or that the riddle, which perhaps he meditated as he came along eating the honey, might not be found out, which might more easily have been done, had this fact been known by any.
k Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 6.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Samson took it (the honey) in his hands, ate some of it as he went, and also gave some to his father and mother to eat, but did not tell them that he had got the honey out of the dead body of the lion; for in that case they would not only have refused to eat it as being unclean, but would have been aware of the fact, which Samson afterwards took as the subject of the riddle that he proposed to the Philistines. , to tread, to tread down; hence to get forcible possession of, not to break or to take out, neither of which meanings can be established. The combination of and is a pregnant construction, signifying to obtain possession of and take into the hands.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(9) He took thereof in his hands.Unless he considered that a skeleton could not be regarded as a dead body, he could not have done this without breaking the express conditions of his Nazarite vow (Num. 5:6).
He told not them.Perhaps from the general reticence of his character, but more probably because they might have been more scrupulous than he was about the ceremonial defilement involved in eating anything which had touched a carcase. Possibly, too, he may have already made the riddle in his head, and did not wish to give any clue to its solution.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Came to his father and mother His parents seem to have accompanied him down to Timnath this second time in order to be present at the wedding feast.
He told them not He perhaps at once conceived the riddle he would propound, and for that reason kept it secret from his parents. But also he might have thought that his approach to the dead carcass was a violation of his Nazarite purity, and he might better keep it to himself; or he may have thought that his parents would regard the honey as unclean if they knew whence he had taken it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jdg 14:9 a
‘And he took it in his hands, and went on, eating as he went.’
As a Nazirite Samson had to avoid dead carcasses for they would render him ‘unclean’, but while he was fastidious about his hair he was possibly slacker about the other requirements. Perhaps as a lifelong Nazirite some leeway was given. On the other hand it may be that in collecting the honey he used some instrument and thus avoided touching the carcass, and satisfied his conscience in that way. He would have become used to different methods of keeping ‘clean’. There does not appear to be any condemnation of his action.
Jdg 14:9 b
‘And he came to his father and mother, and he gave some to them, and they ate, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.’
Moving towards Timnah he met up with his father and mother and gave them some honey without telling them where he had obtained it from. This was something he should have done for they may have considered it wrong to eat honey from a carcass, especially his mother who may have seen herself as still ‘dedicated’ to Yahweh. But again the main point is that they would not know the answer to the riddle that is shortly coming, and he did not talk about his feat.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
Is there not a sweet instruction here, in Samson giving of the honey to his father and mother? everyone that hath tasted the sweets of salvation, is desirous to call others to partake. ‘Oh! come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul, ‘ is the cry of all God’s people. Psa 66:16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 14:9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
Ver. 9. And went on eating. ] So must we pass on toward our heavenly Father’s house, feeding on the heavenly manna, sucking sweetness out of the precious promises, Isa 66:11 which are pabulum fidei, the food of faith.
But he told not them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 14:25-30, Pro 25:15
Reciprocal: Psa 81:16 – honey Pro 25:16 – Hast