Judges 14:17

Jdg 14:17 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.

Ver. 17. And she wept before him the seven days.] Or, Unto the seventh day; this was no less unseasonable and absurd than music in mourning.

He told her, because she lay sore upon him.] Whom the lion could not conquer, the tears of a woman have conquered. Samson never bewrayed infirmity but in mulierosity {Excessive fondness for women} and uxoriousness. {doting or submissive fondness of one’s wife} Utinam tam prudens ad cavendam mulierem fuisset quam fortis ad strangulandum leonem, saith Paulinus. I would he had been as wise as valiant. But many military men are fleshly minded.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 14:17. She wept before him, the seven days — Or rather, the rest of the seven days; that is, either after the third day, (Jdg 14:14,) or all the seventh day, from the time her countrymen came and threatened her till she persuaded Samson to tell her the riddle.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, to the seventh day beginning at the fourth.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 17. And she wept before him] Not through any love to him, for it appears she had none, but to oblige her paramours; and of this he soon had ample proof.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) The seven days.—The margin suggests that it may mean the rest of the seven days. If not, it can only imply that mere feminine curiosity had induced Samson’s wife to weary her husband to tell her the secret from the first.

On the seventh day.—Perhaps he hoped that he might prevent her from finding an opportunity to betray his secret.

He told her.—“Keep the door of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom” (Mic_7:5).

She lay sore upon him—i.e., she grievously troubled him (LXX., Vulg.).

She told the riddle.—Perhaps she might have done so in any case, but she now had the excuse of violent menaces.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. she pressed him sore] lit. reduced him to straits by her importunity; again in Jdg_16:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she wept before him the seven days, while the feast lasted,.... Those that remained of the seven days, from the fourth to this time, as Kimchi seems rightly to interpret it; though some think she began to beseech him with tears, on the first day of the feast, to impart the secret to her for her own satisfaction; and then, after the men had urged her on the fourth day to persuade her husband to it, she continued pressing him more earnestly with tears unto the seventh day. Some, as Abarbinel observes, and to whom he seems to incline, think there were fourteen days, seven days before the festival began, on the last of which they importuned her to try to get the secret from him, Jdg 14:15, and that she continued pressing all the second seven days; but it seems quite clear that it was at the beginning of the seven days of the feast that the riddle was put, which was to be explained within that time, Jdg 14:12.

and it came to pass on the seven day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him; pressed him most earnestly with her entreaties, cries, and tears:

and she told the riddle to the children of her people; though she knew it would be to her husband's detriment, and that he must be obliged to give them thirty sheets of linen, and as many suits of apparel, and though it is probable she had promised not to tell them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The seven days, while their feast lasted, i.e. on the residue of the seven days, to wit, after the third day. It is a familiar synecdoche. Or, on the seventh of the days on which the feast was; and then the following clause, on the seventh day, is only the noun repeated for the pronoun, on that day; as is most frequent, as 1Ki 8:1, Solomon assembled—unto Solomon, i.e. unto himself.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. She wept… the seven days — That is, the rest of the seven days after he put forth the riddle, and while their feast lasted. See notes on Jdg_14:14-15. “Samson’s wife was a weak and wicked woman, who had no real love for her husband, and this is certainly common enough at the present day. Wives are procured now as then by the intervention of parents, and without any of that personal attachment between the parties which we deem essential. They are also very often ready to enter into any treacherous conspiracy against their husbands by which they can gain some desired advantage for themselves or their friends. Indeed, there are very many husbands in this country who neither will nor dare trust their wives. And yet these distrusted but cunning wives have wonderful power over their husbands. “By their arts and their importunity they carry their points, often to the utter and obvious ruin of their husbands. It is not at all contrary to present experience, therefore, that Samson’s wife should conspire against him in the matter of the riddle, nor that she should succeed in teasing him out of the secret.” — Thomson.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

She lay sore upon him. In Jud_1:16:16 the same word is rendered pressed him. It came to pass on the seventh day. This is the confluence of the two streams of narrative.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The seven days - That is, on the residue of the seven days; namely, after the third day.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The seven days. What remained of the seven days, after the fourth day.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.