Judges 14:12-20 - Let me tell you a riddle

14:12-15

It was also traditional to tell a riddle. So Samson tells one related to the lion and the honey. He gives them seven days to solve the riddle, with a forfeit depending on whether they get it right or not. The men agree to the riddle. Having got nowhere, the men decide to go to the wife-to-be to get her to get the answer out of Samson. They also issue a threat if she fails to do so. 

14:16,17

The nameless wife of the previous chapter comes out of things very well. This nameless wife-to-be is a far less attractive figure, though she is under considerable duress. Anyway she uses emotional blackmail to get the answer out of Samson, and he eventually gave up the answer to the riddle.

14:18-20

The men then confront Samson with the solution, but he knows how they had come to “solve” it. At that point “the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him”, and he went and wrecked mayhem on the people of Ashkelon. Samson had enormous strength because of the Lord, but it was his own warped character that led to the situation. His wife-to-be was immediately given to someone else. So he did not get the wife he desired.