7. Then he traveled down and talked with the woman; she was the one Samson wanted.
8. After a while, he came back again to marry her. He turned aside to look at the lion’s remains, and there was a swarm of bees with honey inside the lion’s skeleton.
9. He scooped the honey into his hands, eating it as he continued along. When he got to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it too. But he didn’t tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s skeleton.
10. His father traveled down to the woman, and Samson put on a feast there, as was the custom for young men.
11. When the townspeople saw him, they selected thirty companions to be with him.
12. Then Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. If you can figure it out and tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I’ll give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes.
13. But if you can’t tell me the answer, then it’s you who have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty sets of clothes."So they replied to him, "Tell your riddle; let’s hear it."
14. He said to them,"Out of the eater there came something to eat.Out of the strong there came something sweet."For three days they couldn’t tell the answer to the riddle.
15. On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, "Seduce your husband so he’ll tell us the answer to the riddle, or else we’ll set fire to you and your household. Were we invited here just to become poor?"
16. So Samson’s wife cried on his shoulder and said, "You hate me! You don’t love me! You told a riddle to my people but didn’t tell me the answer."He replied to her, "Look, I haven’t even told the answer to my father and mother. Why should I tell it to you?"
17. But she cried on his shoulder for the rest of the seven days of the feast. Finally, on the seventh day, he told her the answer, for she had nagged him. And she told her people the answer to the riddle.
18. So on the seventh day, before the sun set, the townspeople said to him,"What’s sweeter than honey?What’s stronger than a lion?"He replied to them,"If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer,you wouldn’t have figured out my riddle!"