“Awhile later, as he was returning to claim his bride, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion and saw that there was now a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.”-Judges 14:8
So Samson is walking back to Timnah to claim his gentile bride.
And the same as last time, once he and and his parents arrived at Timnah’s vineyards, they split up and took different routes.
While on the way, Samson of course remembered the crazy encounter he had with the lion and decided to return to the same spot to see if the dead body was still there.
And sure enough it was.
Apparently scavengers had done their job of thoroughly cleaning out the insides of the lion.
What now lay inside the body was a colony of bees who had set up a hive dripping with delicious honey.
In those days, honey was HIGHLY valued simply because there wasn’t a lot of it to be had.
There weren’t such things as hive farms in those days.
So when Samson came across this prized food, his eyes instantly lit up.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he reached inside and scraped out of the lion’s dead body as much honey as he could get.
He enjoyed a good portion of it for himself and then we’re told he later gave some of it to his parents.
Now right here we run into a host of problems.
If Samson’s parents had known where Samson had gotten the honey from, they’d never in a million years have eaten it.
Not only was a lion an UNCLEAN animal but we’re talking about a DEAD unclean animal here.
Remember, a Nazarite was NOT allowed to touch a dead body under any circumstances whatsoever.
And that would include tending to and burying his own parents if they died.
Having said that, there’s a bit of difference between what the Torah REALLY says and how tradition developed around the matter.
In general, tradition says a Nazarite is prohibited from coming into contact with ANY dead thing period, including an animal.
However, they did draw the line at unclean animals, otherwise a Nazir would never be able to eat meat.
As far as I know, there’s no such requirement that a Nazir has to be a vegetarian.
However, beyond that, this situation tells us a lot about Samson’s character…
And just how little he cared about the Laws of Moses, Hebrew traditions and the feelings of others.
Any Hebrew man who without a second’s thought feeds his parents honey from the carcass of an unclean animal has got…shall we say maturity problems?
We’ll continue on with this adventure the next time we meet.
Leave a Reply