“He went down to the woman. Samson made a feast there as the young people were accustomed to do. When the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. Samson said to them. ‘Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can explain it to men within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festive garments. But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty festive garments.’ So they said to him. ‘Ask your riddle. Let us hear it.’ He said to them.
‘Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet’
But for three days they could not explain the riddle.”
Apparently, they had a week long wedding festival, more or less a drinking party with at least 30 companions. Samson proposed his riddle about the eater and something strong and sweet. They had 7 days to figure it out. The winner got 30 festive garments. Samson would get 30, but the others would get 1 each from Samson. For the first 3 days there was no answer.
“On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife. ‘Coax your husband to explain the riddle to us or we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?’ So Samson’s wife wept before him, and said. ‘You hate me. You do not really love me. You asked a riddle to my people, but you have not explained it to me.’ He said to her. ‘Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?’ She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted. Because she nagged him, on the seventh day he told her. Then she explained the riddle to her people. The men of the town said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down.
‘What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?’
Then he said to them,
‘If you had not plowed with my heifer,
You would not have found out my riddle.’”
Samson’s wife wanted him to explain the riddle to her. The 30 companions had threatened to burn her and her father’s house if she did not tell them. She cried and nagged Samson from the 4th to the 7th day. Then on the 7th day he explained it to her. She went in turn and explained how to solve the riddle to the companions. However, Samson realized that it was his wife who gave them the answer proclaiming that they had plowed with his heifer.
“Then the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him. He went down to Ashkelon. There he killed thirty men of the town. He took their spoil. He gave the festive garments to those who had explained the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.”
Don’t make Samson mad. He went to Ashkelon, which was a chief Philistine city. There he killed 30 Philistine men and took their festive garments so that he could give them to the 30 companions at Timnah. He then went home and gave his wife to his best man. I guess that this was not a long marriage, just about a week long.