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Journey of a Passage

Judges 14:14

Samson's riddle

The riddle is stable across the witnesses checked. Its Hebrew is compact and rhythmic, with wordplay that translations can only partly carry.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JudgesUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Judges
Greek
  1. Septuagint (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 2nd century BC
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Judges

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the 2nd century BC

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    L'aliment a été tiré du mangeur; la douceur de la force

    Food was drawn from the eater; sweetness from strength

    One Greek text via Giguet's French; Greek A and B not checked separately.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    De comedente exivit cibus, et de forti egressa est dulcedo

    Agrees.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Judges

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    מֵהָאֹכֵל יָצָא מַאֲכָל וּמֵעַז יָצָא מָתוֹק

    From the eater came out food, and from the strong came out sweet

    ʾokhel / maʾakhal and ʿaz / matoq: sound play.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness

    "Meat" in old English means food.

What changed, and why

The answer (14:18), "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?", is itself shaped like a riddle, and some scholars suggest a traditional answer "love."

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe witnesses checked agree on 14:14.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Samson and the Riddle →Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman of Timnah. On the way he tears apart a lion with bare hands, and later finds bees and honey in its carcass. At the wedding feast he poses a riddle to thirty Philistine companions, who threaten his bride until she gets the answer. He kills thirty men of Ashkelon to pay the wager.
  • Journey of a Passage: Ancient Judges Texts →A guide to the passages in Judges where ancient copies and translations differ, or where the difference is between two compositions rather than two copies. Each has its own passage page with the witnesses laid out side by side.