1. Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman from the daughters of the Philistines.
2. He came back up and told his father and mother, “I have seen a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; now get her for me as a wife.”
3. His father and mother said to him, “Are there no women among your relatives, or all of our people, that you are intending to take a wife from among the uncircumcised Philistines?”Yet Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.”
4. His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, for He was seeking an opportunity to act against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5. Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. As they came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him.
6. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and though unarmed, he tore the lion in two as one might tear a young goat in two. However, he did not tell his father and his mother what he had done.
7. So Samson went down and spoke with the woman, and she pleased Samson.
8. After a while, when he returned to take her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion.
9. He scooped it out into his hands and ate it as he went along. He came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they also ate. Yet he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of a lion’s carcass.
10. Then his father went down to the woman. Samson put on a feast there, for this is what young men would do.
11. When the Philistines saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.