What does Judges 14:12 mean?
Samson is hosting a week-long wedding feast in the Philistine town of Timnah. It is part of his marriage to a Philistine bride (Judges 14:1–3). Thirty men from the town have been assigned as Samson's companions during the feast. Scholars speculate about whether they were to serve as informal "drinking buddies," customary attendants, or even security guards.Riddles and mysteries were popular in the ancient world, but Samson enhances this one with a wager. If his thirty Philistine companions can solve it within the seven days of the feast, he will give each man a linen garment and a change of clothes. In other words, Samson would give them each a complete outfit, consisting of the long undergarment and the shorter tunic worn over it. This would have been an extremely expensive provision. For someone so directly assigned by God (Judges 13:5), Samson's life is remarkably plagued by impulsiveness and poor decision making (Judges 16:1, 4). In this case, his personality flaws might have been aggravated by large quantities of alcohol (Judges 14:10–11).
The following verse reveals the stakes for the Philistine men if they cannot solve the riddle: the same handsome payment but split among thirty men (Judges 14:13).