"Samson's Wedding"
In Timnah, Samson meets "one of the daughters of the Philistines" (Judges 14:1). As we saw last week, names are important to characters, but here, we are never told the name of this mystery woman. What we're told is important, but what we're also not told is just as important. The detail that is repeated again and again is her ancestry, that she is a Philistine, and not an Israelite.
Samson proceeds to relate this encounter to his parents, but notice how he communicates it to them. Samson "told his father and mother" and basically commanded them to get this woman for him to be his wife (Judges 14:2). His statement was full of verbs and given as imperatives. This is certainly not the way we talk to our parents, and it's even more shocking when we remember the Middle Eastern culture of respect and the importance of familial ties then. Samson makes his desire for this woman plain and insists on this. The first 2 verses of this chapter serves as a sort of introduction to this character, and all we see is a man who is intent on expressing his desire for a woman he meets, but frankly, does not know what it means to have a wife.