Passage Research
Judges 14 — Sermon Preparation
Samson takes a Philistine wife from Timnah, poses a riddle at the wedding feast, and kills thirty Philistines in a rage when his wife gives away the answer. Below is a research summary for Judges 14, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 20
- verses
- 336 / 118
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 6
- classic sermon excerpts
- 3
- preachers & commentators
Judges 14 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נָגַד | nâgad | H5046 | 14 | front, manifest |
| שִׁמְשׁוֹן | Shimshôwn | H8123 | 9 | Shimshon |
| חִידָה | chîydâh | H2420 | 8 | puzzle, trick |
| אָב | ʼâb | H1 | 11 | father |
| אִשָּׁה | ʼishshâh | H802 | 10 | woman |
| תִּמְנָה | Timnâh | H8553 | 5 | Timnah |
| אֵם | ʼêm | H517 | 7 | mother |
How preachers through history handled this text
6 public-domain excerpts on Judges 14, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“Samson's riddle literally meant no more than that he had got honey, for food and for pleasure, from the lion, which in its strength and fury was ready to devour him. But the victory of Christ over Satan, by means of his humiliation, agonies, and death, and the exaltation that followed to him, with the glory thence to the Father, and spiritual advantages to his people, seem directly alluded to. And even death, that devouring monster, being robbed of his sting, and stripped of his horror, forwards the soul to the realms of bliss. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Judges 14:10–30 (Public Domain)
Places in the text
Based on ancient-geography data
- Timnah 1— Judg 14:1
- Ashkelon— Judg 14:19
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