1. One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain Philistine woman.
2. He went back home and said to his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who has caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”
3. But his father and mother asked him, “Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find a girl in our own clan, among all our people?”But Samson said to his father, “She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her.”
4. His parents did not know that it was the Lord who was leading Samson to do this, for the Lord was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.
12-13. Samson said to them, “Let me ask you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over.”“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let's hear it.”