The idea which this chapter gives us of Samson is not what one might have expected concerning one who, by the special designation of heaven, was a Nazarite to God and a deliverer of Israel; and yet really he was both. Here is, I. Samson's courtship of a daughter of the Philistines, and his marriage to her, ver. 1-5, 7, 8. II. His conquest of a lion, and the prize he found in the carcase of it, ver. 5, 6, 8, 9. III. Samson's riddle proposed to his companions (ver. 10-14) and unriddled by the treachery of his wife, ver. 15-18. IV. The occasion this gave him to kill thirty of the Philistines (ver. 19) and to break off his new alliance, ver. 20.
Samson Chooses a Philistine Wife; A Lion Slain by Samson. (b. c. 1141.)