Samson said,—I will now put forth a riddle unto you— It was a very ancient custom, as we learn from this, to propose at feasts, enigmas to their guests, in order to exercise their wit, and enliven conversation, instead of passing the whole time in downright eating and drinking. The Greeks derived this custom from the Orientals, and they generally proposed a reward to those who solved the riddle.
Bp. Warburton observes, that as symbolick writing, the more it receded from the proper hieroglyphick, became the more obscure; so it was with the parable, which grew the more mysterious, till it became a riddle, which exactly corresponded with the enigmatical hieroglyphick. This in sacred scripture is called a dark saying, by way of eminence. In the interpretation of these riddles consisted much of the old eastern wisdom, according to the observation of the wise man, Proverbs 1:5-6. It was the custom too, as we learn from this passage, and it lasted long, as we are informed by Josephus, for the sages of those times to send or offer riddles to each other, as a trial of sagacity, to the exposition of which rewards and penalties were annexed; so that the present of a riddle was only the stratagem for a booty. Hence the understanding of dark sentences became proverbial among the Hebrews, to signify the arts of fraud and deceit, as may be collected from the character frequently given by Daniel of Antiochus Epiphanes; Daniel 8:23. The mysterious cover to this kind of wisdom made it, as such a cover always will, the most high prized accomplishment: So when the psalmist would raise and enlarge the attention of his audience, he begins his song in this manner: I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Psalms 49:4. For, a great critic in sacred and prophane learning rightly observes upon the place, "The Psalmist, in order to engage the attention of his auditors, promises to treat of such things as were esteemed the highest reach of wisdom; and in composing this Psalm, he made use of all the art that he was master of, to render it worthy of his subject." Div. Leg. vol. 3: p. 155. See Boch. Hieroz. pars 2: lib. 4 cap. 12. & Egid. Strauchii Dissert. de Enigm. Sams.