What Does Judges 14:12 Mean?
And Samson said to them, I will now set a riddle before you. If you can certainly tell it to me within the seven days of the feast of drinking, and find it, then I will give you thirty linen cloths and thirty changes of garments.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:THE KEY
Samson’s Hebrew literally echoes “I will riddle a riddle,” so the enigma and the act of posing it share the same root.
THE MEANING
A riddle stands before you with seven days to uncover it, and its discovery carries a wager of thirty sheets and thirty changes of clothing. The verse holds hidden speech and public telling together: the answer matters when it can be brought into words.
THE ROOT
אֲחוּדָה
ʾăḥûdâ
GROWS FROM
חוד
ḥ-w-d
to speak enigmatically; to pose a riddle
“set a riddle before you” in this verse is ʾăḥûdâ. The verb אֲחוּדָה (ʾăḥûdâ, “let me pose”) and the noun חִידָה (ḥîdâ, “riddle”) come from the same root, making the Hebrew echo “riddle a riddle.” The verse binds the hidden saying to the act that brings it into the room.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăḥûdâ: I will pose a riddle
אֲחוּדָה
This is the action Samson offers: setting an enigmatic saying before them.
ḥîdâ: riddle, enigma
חִידָה
The same root names the saying itself, joining the act of posing it with what must be uncovered.
הַגֵּד תַּגִּידוּ
haggēd taggîdû
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
to make known, tell, announce
The Hebrew repeats this root in an infinitive absolute followed by a verb: “if you can indeed tell it to me.” The riddle’s movement is from what is concealed to an answer made known in speech.
ALSO GROWS
higgîd: to tell, make known
הִגִּיד
This verb names the act required to solve the riddle: putting its answer into words.
maggîd: one who tells or announces
מַגִּיד
The same root can name the speaker who makes something known, completing the movement from enigma to declaration.
THE PATTERN
A hidden saying becomes knowable when it is understood and brought into speech.
To discern a proverb and its turned saying, the words of the wise and their enfolded riddles.Because an excellent breath, and knowing, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and loosing of knots, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.So that what was spoken through the prophet might be filled, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will pour forth what has been hidden from the laying down of the world.THE THREAD
And he said to them, Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness. And they could not tell the riddle in three days.The Hebrew word translated “riddle” is the same חִידָה (ḥîdâ, “riddle”) from this verse. Here the offer reaches its test: the hidden saying must be understood well enough to tell its answer.
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