Out of the strong came forth sweetness. — The antithesis is not perfect, but we cannot strain the word “strong” to mean “bitter,” as the LXX. and Syriac do. Josephus gives the riddle in the form,”the all-devouring having generated sweet food from itself, though itself far from sweet” (Antt. v. 8, § 6). The whole of Samson’s life has been described by Ewald as “a charming poetic picture, in which the interspersed verses gleam forth like the brightest pearls in a circlet.” It must be confessed that the riddle was hardly a fair one, for the event to which it alluded was most unusual, and no one could have guessed such a riddle without some clue; for —
“ ’Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrion.”
Shakespeare: Henry V., ii. 4.
Cassel quotes a curious parallel from the legends of North Germany. The judges offer a woman her husband’s life if she can make a riddle which they cannot guess. On her way to the court she had found the carcase of a horse in which a bird had built its nest and hatched six young ones, which she took away. Her riddle was (I venture rudely to translate the rude old lines): —
“As hitherwards on my way I sped,
I took the living out of the dead,
Six were thus of the seventh made quit: —
To rede my riddle, my lords, ‘tis fit.”
The judges failed, and the husband was spared (Mullen-hof, Sagen, p. 506).
In three days. — It is hard to see why this is mentioned if it was only on the seventh day (Judges 14:15) that they tried the unfair means of inducing Samson’s wife to reveal the secret. Bishop Hervey conjectures, with much probability, that we should read shesheth “six,” for shelsheth, “four.” The LXX. and Syriac read “on the fourth day,” and ד (7) may easily have been confused with ד (4).