Teks -- Judges 14:18 (NET)

14:18 On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Jdg 14:18 - If ye had not &c.

_If you had not employed my wife to find it out, as men plough up the ground with an heifer, thereby discovering its hidden parts; he calls her heifer, because she was joined with him in the same yoke.

JFB: Jdg 14:12-18 - I will now put forth a riddle

Riddles are a favorite Oriental amusement at festive entertainments of this nature, and rewards are offered to those who give the solution. Samson's riddle related to honey in the lion's carcass. The prize he offered was thirty sindinim, or shirts, and thirty changes of garments, probably woolen. Three days were passed in vain attempts to unravel the enigma. The festive week was fast drawing to a close when they secretly enlisted the services of the newly married wife, who having got the secret, revealed it to her friends.

JFB: Jdg 14:18 - If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle

A metaphor borrowed from agricultural pursuits, in which not only oxen but cows and heifers were, and continue to be, employed in dragging the plough. Divested of metaphor, the meaning is taken by some in a criminal sense, but probably means no more than that they had resorted to the aid of his wife--an unworthy expedient, which might have been deemed by a man of less noble spirit and generosity as releasing him from the obligation to fulfil his bargain.

Clarke: Jdg 14:18 - If ye had not ploughed with my heifer

If ye had not ploughed with my heifer - If my wife had not been unfaithful to my bed, she would not have been unfaithful to my secret; and, you being her paramours, your interest was more precious to her than that of her husband. She has betrayed me through her attachment to you. Calmet has properly remarked, in quoting the Septuagint, that to plough with one’ s heifer, or to plough in another man’ s ground, are delicate turns of expression used both by the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, to point out a wife’ s infidelities. Thus Theognis, Gnom. v. 581: -

Εχθαιρω δε γυναικα περιδρομον, ανδρα τε μαργον.

Ὁς την αλλονριην βουλετ ’ αρουραν αρουν.

"I detest a woman who gads about, and also a libidinous man, who wishes to plough in another man’ s ground.

Fundum alienium arat, incultum familiarem deserit

Plautus

"He ploughs another’ s farm, and leaves his own heritage uncultivated.

Milo domi non est, perepre at Milone profect

Arva vacant, uxor non minus inde parit

Martial

"Milo is not at home, and Milo being from home, his field lies uncultivated; his wife, nevertheless, continues to breed, and brings forth children.

There is the same metaphor in the following lines of Virgil: -

Hoc faciunt, nimo ne luxu obtusior usus

Sit genitali arvo, sulcosque oblimet inertes

Geor. l. iii., v. 135

In this sense Samson’ s words were understood by the Septuagint, by the Syriac, and by Rabbi Levi. See Bochart, Hierozoic. p. 1, lib. ii., cap. 41, col. 406. The metaphor was a common one, and we need seek for no other interpretation of the words of Samson.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jdg 14:18 - heifer

If you had not employed my wife to find it out , as men plough up the ground with a heifer, thereby discovering its hidden parts: he calls her

heifer either because he now suspected her wantonness and too much familiarity with that friend which she afterwards married; or because she was joined with him in the same yoke; or rather, because they used such in ploughing.

Haydock: Jdg 14:18 - Down // Heifer

Down, at which time the day ended among the Jews. ---

Heifer. This proverbial expression means, that another's property had been used against himself; (Delrio adag.162) or it may intimate, that improper liberties had been taken with Samson's wife, (Calmet) as her so readily taking one of them for her husband, (ver. 20) might lead us to suspect. (Haydock) ---

The Greek and Latin authors speak of a faithless wife in similar terms. (Theognis. lviii., &c.)

Gill: Jdg 14:18 - And the men of the city said unto him, on the seventh day, before the sun went down // what is sweeter than honey // and what is stronger than a lion // and he said unto them, if ye had not ploughed with my heifer // ye had not found out my riddle

And the men of the city said unto him, on the seventh day, before the sun went down,.... And so soon, enough to free them from the obligation they otherwise would have been under, to have given him the sheets and changes of raiment agreed unto:

what is sweeter than honey? nothing, at least that was known, sugar not being invented. Julian the emperor ⁿ, in commendation of figs, shows, from various authors, that nothing is sweeter than they, excepting honey:

and what is stronger than a lion? no creature is, it is the strongest among beasts, Pro 30:30. Homer ^o gives the epithet of strong to a lion:

and he said unto them, if ye had not ploughed with my heifer; meaning his wife, whom he compares to an heifer, young, wanton, and unaccustomed to the yoke ^p; and by "ploughing" with her, he alludes to such creatures being employed therein, making use of her to get the secret out of him, and then plying her closely to obtain it from her; and this diligent application and search of theirs, by this means to inform themselves, was like ploughing up ground; they got a discovery of that which before lay hid, and without which they could never have had the knowledge of, as he adds:

ye had not found out my riddle; the explanation of it. Ben Gersome and Abarbinel interpret ploughing of committing adultery with her; in which sense the phrase is used by Greek and Latin writers ^q; but the first sense is best, for it is not said, "ploughed my heifer", but with her.