Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Judges 14:1-2

CHAPTER 14

Jud 14:1-5. Samson Desires a Wife of the Philistines.

1-2. Timnath--now Tibna, about three miles from Zorah, his birthplace.

saw a woman ... of the Philistines; and told his father and his mother, and said, ... get her for me to wife--In the East parents did, and do in many cases still, negotiate the marriage alliances for their sons. During their period of ascendency, the Philistine invaders had settled in the towns; and the intercourse between them and the Israelites was often of such a friendly and familiar character as to issue in matrimonial relations. Moreover, the Philistines were not in the number of the seven devoted nations of Canaan [De 7:1-3]--with whom the law forbade them to marry.