士师记 14:12

Chinese Union (Simplified)

参 孙 对 他 们 说 ： 我 给 你 们 出 一 个 谜 语 ， 你 们 在 七 日 筵 宴 之 内 ， 若 能 猜 出 意 思 告 诉 我 ， 我 就 给 你 们 三 十 件 里 衣 ， 三 十 套 衣 裳 ；

Parallel Translations

Chinese NCV (Simplified)
參孫對他們說：“現在讓我給你們出一個謎語，你們在七天婚宴之內，如果能猜出來，把它的意思清楚告訴我，我就給你們三十件內衣、三十套衣服。

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a riddle: 1 Kings 10:1, Psalms 49:4, Proverbs 1:6, Ezekiel 17:2, Ezekiel 20:49, Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:34, Luke 14:7, John 16:29, 1 Corinthians 13:12, *marg.

the seven: Genesis 29:27, Genesis 29:28, 2 Chronicles 7:8

sheets: or, shirts. This will receive illustration from Mr. Jackson's description of the Moorish dress: It resembles that of the ancient patriarchs as represented in paintings - but the paintings are taken from Asiatic models that of the men consists of a red cap and turban, a (kumja) shirt, which hangs outside of the drawers, and comes below the knee; a (caftan) coat, which buttons close before, and down to the bottom with large open sleeves; over which, when they go out of doors, they throw carelessly, and sometimes elegantly, a hayk, or garment of white cotton, silk, or wool, five or six yards long, and five feet wide. The Arabs often dispense with the caftan, and even with the shirt, wearing nothing but the hayk." Matthew 27:28, Mark 14:51, Mark 14:52

change: Genesis 45:22, 2 Kings 5:5, 2 Kings 5:22, Matthew 6:19, James 5:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:8 - feast Matthew 13:24 - put

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Samson said unto them,.... His thirty companions, very likely on the first day of the feast:

I will now put forth a riddle to you: a secret, hidden, abstruse thing, not easy to be understood; a dark saying, wrapped up in figurative terms; and this he proposed as an amusement to them, to exercise their wits, which it seems was usual to entertain guests with, and might be both pleasing and profitable:

if you can certainly declare it unto me within the seven days of the feast; for so long the nuptial feast was usually kept, see

Genesis 29:27. If they could find it out; and with clearness and certainty explain the riddle to him within that period of time, which was giving them time enough to do it in:

then I will give you thirty sheets, and thirty change of garments: that is, every man one of each. By "sheets" he means, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, a covering of the body in the night next to the flesh, in which a man lies, and was made of linen; meaning either what we call shirts, or bed sheet, and by change of raiment, a suit of clothes worn in the daytime.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal references. Riddles formed one of the amusements of these protracted feasts.

Sheets - Rather “linen shirts;” the “garments” which follow are the outward garments worn by the Orientals.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Judges 14:12. I will now put forth a riddle — Probably this was one part of the amusements at a marriage-feast; each in his turn proposing a riddle, to be solved by any of the rest on a particular forfeit; the proposer forfeiting, if solved, the same which the company must forfeit if they could not solve it.

Thirty sheets — I have no doubt that the Arab hayk, or hake, is here meant; a dress in which the natives of the East wrap themselves, as a Scottish Highlander does in his plaid. In Asiatic countries the dress scarcely ever changes; being nearly the same now that it was 2000 years ago. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, thus mentions the Moorish dress: "It resembles," says he, "that of the ancient patriarchs, as represented in paintings; (but the paintings are taken from Asiatic models;) that of the men consists of a red cap and turban, a (kumja) shirt, which hangs outside of the drawers, and comes down below the knee; a (caftan) coat, which buttons close before, and down to the bottom, with large open sleeves; over which, when they go out of doors, they throw carelessly, and sometimes elegantly, a hayk, or garment of white cotton, silk, or wool, five or six yards long, and five feet wide. The Arabs often dispense with the caftan, and even with the shirt, wearing nothing but the hayk." When an Arab does not choose to wrap himself in the hayk, he throws it over his left shoulder, where it hangs till the weather, c., obliges him to wrap it round him. The hayk is either mean or elegant, according to the quality of the cloth, and of the person who wears it. I have myself seen the natives of Fez, with hayks, or hykes, both elegant and costly. By the changes of garments, it is very likely that the kumja and caftan are meant, or at least the caftan but most likely both: for the Hebrew has חליפות בגדים chaliphoth begadim, changes or succession of garments. Samson, therefore, engaged to give or receive thirty hayks, and thirty kumjas and caftans, on the issue of the interpretation or non-interpretation of his riddle: these were complete suits.