Judges 14:9

Jdg 14:9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

Ver. 9. And went on eating.] So must we pass on toward our heavenly Father’s house, feeding on the heavenly manna, sucking sweetness out of the precious promises, {Isa 66:11} which are pabulum fidei, the food of faith.

But he told not them.] Taciturnity is sometimes a virtue; and Tacitus is Primus in Historia. If this had come abroad, where had been the matter of his riddle?

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.

(9) He took thereof in his hands.—Unless he considered that a skeleton could not be regarded as a dead body, he could not have done this without breaking the express conditions of his Nazarite vow (Num_5:6).

He told not them.—Perhaps from the general reticence of his character, but more probably because they might have been more scrupulous than he was about the ceremonial defilement involved in eating anything which had touched a carcase. Possibly, too, he may have already made the riddle in his head, and did not wish to give any clue to its solution.

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

9. And he took it … had taken] The word, which occurs only here (? in Jer_5:31), is used in the Talmud for taking honey out of the hive, detaching bread from the sides of the oven; so we may render he scraped off the honey into his palms. It is one of the household words of old Hebrew which rarely find their way into literature (Moore). For wild honey as food cf. 1Sa_14:25 ff., St Mar_1:6.

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 he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating,.... Josephus (k) says he took three honeycombs, he means three pieces of the honeycomb, and ate the honey as he went along to Timnath; which he might do without touching the carcass of the lion, and defiling himself thereby, which, as a Nazarite, he was more especially to be careful of:

and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat; who went down with him to the consummation of the marriage, and from whom he had turned a little aside; and now overtook them, and to whom he gave some of his honey to eat, which, having travelled some way, might be grateful to them. The above writer takes no notice of this, but says he gave of it to the young woman whom he betrothed, when he came to her; but of that the text makes no mention:

but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion; either lest they should scruple eating it, being taken out of such a carcass; or that the riddle, which perhaps he meditated as he came along eating the honey, might not be found out, which might more easily have been done, had this fact been known by any.

(k) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 6.)

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

He took thereof in his hands, out of the lion’s carcass.

Quest. Did not Samson transgress in touching a carcass?

Answ. It was in itself a legal pollution; but some such pollutions were involuntary and unavoidable, as in one that hath an issue running in his sleep; and some were necessary duties, as in those who were to attend upon a woman in her month, or upon the burial of a dead body. And such was this pollution, being contracted by Divine instinct and direction, and in order to God’s honour, and therefore dispensed with by the author of that law, and required by him for his service.

Came to his father and mother; from whom he had turned aside for a season, Jdg 14:8, upon some pretence or other.

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

9. Came to his father and mother — His parents seem to have accompanied him down to Timnath this second time in order to be present at the wedding feast.

He told them not — He perhaps at once conceived the riddle he would propound, and for that reason kept it secret from his parents. But also he might have thought that his approach to the dead carcass was a violation of his Nazarite purity, and he might better keep it to himself; or he may have thought that his parents would regard the honey as unclean if they knew whence he had taken it.

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

And... he went on eating, etc. Compare the account of Jonathan finding and eating the wild honey. (1Sa_14:25, and following verses)

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

Came to, &c. - From whom he had turned aside for a season, ver. 8.

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

Samson took it (the honey) in his hands, ate some of it as he went, and also gave some to his father and mother to eat, but did not tell them that he had got the honey out of the dead body of the lion; for in that case they would not only have refused to eat it as being unclean, but would have been aware of the fact, which Samson afterwards took as the subject of the riddle that he proposed to the Philistines. רדה, to tread, to tread down; hence to get forcible possession of, not to break or to take out, neither of which meanings can be established. The combination of רדה and אל־כּפּיו is a pregnant construction, signifying to obtain possession of and take into the hands.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

He dislodged it. This connotes the separation of an attached object. Similarly, with regard to a loaf attached to an oven, separation is described as "dislodging"— "If one dislodges a loaf from the oven," "If one dislodges his hive," as the honey is produced in wax combs attached to the walls of the hive in every area, extending from wall to wall along its circumference. Similarly, Targum Yonasan translates "He removed it."

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.