1. Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman. The first common noun that appears in the Samson narrative is “woman,” a word that will be reiterated and that picks up the repeated use of “woman” in the annunciation scene. “Woman” is also the very first word of dialogue assigned to Samson (and for that reason, this translation follows the syntactic order of the Hebrew).

3. my people. Some scholars emend this to “your people.”

the uncircumcised Philistines. This is a recurrent epithet for the Philistines, a people of Hellenic origin, and is not used for the Canaanites, who in some instances may have possibly practiced circumcision. The foreskin is an obvious mark of difference but it also focuses a sense of sexual recoil: the Philistine woman, whom Samson would have as a sexual partner, belongs to an uncircumcised people and was begotten by an uncircumcised male.

because she pleases me. The literal sense is “because she is right in my eyes.” Since there is no indication that Samson has exchanged a single word with the woman, we may infer that his only reason for wanting her as wife is physical attraction—what he has seen.

4. it was from the LORD. The theological explanation is a little shaky: God knows that the only way to get this particular hero to act against the Philistines is to involve him with a woman, which will lead to his being tricked by her countrymen, which then will provoke him to vengeance.

5. and, look, a young lion came roaring at him. The shift of perspective marked by “look” is of course to Samson’s viewpoint. At this moment, though he has been accompanied by his parents, he is clearly separated from them, and they do not witness the killing of the lion. Arnold Ehrlich proposes that Samson, as an energetic young man, has bounded far ahead of his parents, who are walking slowly on the path to Timnah.

6. And the spirit of the LORD seized him. In Samson’s case, the divine afflatus enables violent action by the hero and is not the charisma of an ad hoc military leader. All his heroic acts are performed by him alone.

he did not tell his father and his mother. Samson has a penchant for secrets, but he gets himself in trouble when he reveals his secrets to women.

7. he went down and spoke to the woman. The verb “spoke” here, as in some other contexts, is probably a technical term for a proposal of marriage.

9. And he scooped it up into his palms. It should be noted that carcasses are considered to be ritually unclean, so that by taking food from the lion’s bones Samson is violating one of the terms of the nazirite vow. The setting, moreover, is a vineyard, although he does not touch the grapes.

11. companions. They are, in effect, designated companions for the bridegroom during the seven days of the feast, though Samson has no personal relationship with them.

12. find the solution. The Hebrew uses an ellipsis, merely the verb “find.”

I shall give you thirty fine cloths and thirty changes of garment. The confident Samson takes on himself an indemnity in the bet thirty times that of each of the Philistine men.

14. From the eater food came forth. The Hebrew uses cognate terms: from the eater what-is-eaten came forth. The riddle, as is appropriate for riddles, is cast in a line of verse. It is, of course, an unfair riddle (hence Samson’s confidence) because it depends on unique circumstances known only to the riddler, and nothing in its formulation provides a clue to the solution.

15. on the fourth day. The translation follows the Septuagint; the Masoretic Text reads “on the seventh day,” but it is not credible that they would have waited until the very last moment, and this would also contradict the report that she pestered him for the solution day after day. There remains some problem about the number of days because in verse 17 she is said to have been weeping before Samson seven days, not four.

Entice. The Hebrew verb in context means something like “cajole” or “coax,” but it also has a sexual connotation, “entice” or “seduce,” and the Philistine men are clearly suggesting that she use her feminine wiles on her husband.

or we will burn you and your father’s house in fire. Here the fire motif introduced in the annunciation scene enters the story proper. This is, of course, an offer that the woman cannot refuse.

Did the two of you call us here to beggar us? The Hebrew conjugates the verb “call” (in the sense of “invite”) in the plural, and the translation uses “the two of you” to make that clear: in effect, they are angrily accusing the woman of conspiring against them with her Israelite husband.

here. Reading halom, with the Septuagint, for the Masoretic halo’.

16. You only hate me and don’t love me. Here the dialogue has a sharp edge of realism: if you really loved me, you wouldn’t keep secrets from me. And her speech, moreover, is accompanied by tears. Samson tries to resist and hold on to the secret, as we see in his immediate response, but in the end he succumbs to her persistent tears and imploring.

18. before the sun went down. They wait until the last possible moment to spring the answer on him, an effect perhaps highlighted here by the use of a quasi-epic flourish beterem yavoʾ haḥarsah in which the word for sun, ḥarsah, is archaic and poetic instead of the standard shemesh.

Had you not plowed with my heifer, / you would not have solved my riddle. Their statement of the solution to the riddle, like the riddle itself, is cast in a line of verse with three accents in each verset. Samson’s response is equally a 3/3 line, although he also uses rhyme (an occasional occurrence in biblical poetry): ʿeglati / ḥidati. The plowing image is obviously sexual: if you had not played around with my wife, she would not have revealed the secret to you. Thus, Samson has no notion that his wife acted under a death threat but instead imagines that she has been unfaithful to him—perhaps, with thirty different men! He therefore departs enraged not only against the thirty “companions” but also against his wife.

19. he went down to Ashkelon. Timnah is a small Philistine town in the lowlands (Shephelah), whereas Ashkelon is one of the five principal Philistine towns on the Mediterranean coast.

their armor. From the one other biblical occurrence of this term, ḥalitsah, in 2 Samuel 2:21, it is clear that it refers to armor, not clothing in general. Samson, then, chooses to confront and kill armed warriors. It is probably the armor that he sends as “changes of garment” to the thirty men who were at his wedding: this would be an act of defiance, demonstrating to them the bold and deadly thing he has done. No mention is made of the fine cloths, perhaps because the armor is far more than the equivalent in value of fine cloth and garment.

20. Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions. The marriage is in effect annulled, and the plowing with Samson’s heifer takes place after the fact of his mentioning it to the companions.

one of his companions who had been in his company. The Hebrew uses a cognate noun and verb and literally says, “his companion.” The subject and object of the verb are ambiguous: it could be read either as “he [the companion] befriended/was companion to him [Samson]” or “he [Samson] befriended/was companion to him [the companion].”