13 But if you can’t tell me the answer, you must pay me. You must give me 30 linen shirts and 30 changes of clothes.”So they said, “Tell us your riddle. We want to hear it.”
14 Samson said,“Out of the eater comes something to eat.Out of the strong comes something sweet.”The 30 men tried for three days to figure it out. But they could not find the answer.
15 On the fourth day, they came to Samson’s wife. They said, “Did you invite us here to make us poor? Trick your husband into telling us the answer to the riddle. If you don’t, we will burn you and everyone in your father’s house!”
16 So Samson’s wife went to him and began crying. She said, “You hate me! You don’t really love me! You told my people a riddle, but you won’t tell me the answer.”Samson said, “I haven’t even told my father or mother. Why should I tell you?”
17 Samson’s wife cried for the rest of the seven days of the feast. So he finally gave her the answer on the seventh day. He told her because she kept bothering him. Then she told her people the answer to the riddle.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day of the feast, the Philistine men had the answer. They came to Samson and said,“What is sweeter than honey?What is stronger than a lion?”Then Samson said to them,“If you had not plowed with my little cow,you would not have solved my riddle!”
19 The Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. Samson went down to the city of Ashkelon. He killed 30 of their men and took all their clothes and property. He gave those clothes to the men who had answered his riddle. Then he went to his father’s house very angry.