What Does Judges 14:18 Mean in the King James?
And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Samson names the answer’s route: the riddle is extracted through the intimacy he shared with his wife.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two discoveries together: honey comes from the lion, and the answer comes to the men through Samson’s wife. His image of plowing makes their solution sound like intimate access used to uncover what was hidden, not a clean victory of cleverness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A correct answer does not prove it was honestly won; Samson says the men found his riddle by using his wife.
THE ROOT
חֲרַשְׁתֶּם
ḥăraštem
GROWS FROM
חרשׁ
To plow or work into a surface; the root also carries the sense of engraving or shaping through labor.
“plowed” in this verse is ḥăraštem. The verb makes the answer sound worked out through a person, not solved from the clues alone. A related word for a craftsman carries the same image of shaping a surface, echoing how the men work through Samson’s intimate bond to bring the hidden answer out.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōrēš: Plowman; one who tills the soil.
חֹרֵשׁ
This form keeps the literal field image audible in Samson’s accusation.
ḥārāš: Craftsman or engraver; one who works a material into form.
חָרָשׁ
It extends the root’s image of working into a surface, resonating with the way the riddle is worked out through access to Samson’s wife.
THE PATTERN
A concealed answer can become public through the relationship that gives someone access to it.
And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.THE THREAD
And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.This verse names the channel: Samson tells the riddle to his wife under pressure, and she carries it to her people. That makes the men’s answer a disclosure gained through intimacy, not a riddle they solve on their own.
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