Her!

 Her! 

from Gregorius Gruntman’s commentary on Judges (in the Incoherent series, published by Rantrage Press, forthcoming 2019, p. 196): the story found in in 14:1-4a, “Samson’s girl” —
 

XIV. 1 When Samson was down in Timnah, a Philistine girl caught his eye. 2 And when he got home he told his dad and mum. “I saw this girl down in Timnah. Get her for me.”  3 But they replied, “Wait. Isn’t there a girl around here, one of your cousins or, at least, your cousins’ cousins you could like? You have to want the daughter of one of those foreskinned Philistines?”  3 Samson only said, “Get her for me. She’s the one I want.”

     4 His anxious parents didn’t know that their son’s lust was God’s business: He was looking to start trouble with the Philistines.

Notes

vi. 1.  Zorah, where Samson’s parents lived - and Samson lived, too, because he was still living at home (Actually, until he will be captured, he’ll always live at home.) - was to Timnah as Borough Park is to Washington Heights, for example.Though it has absolutely nothing to do with this verse, Fabianski’s essay on preference for the niphil perfect participle over the plural cohortative to translate נשׄמע is well worth reading again.

     3. cousins.  אִשָּׁה עַמִּי-וּבְכָל אַחֶיךָ בִּבְנוֹת הַאֵין. More like: one of my brother’s daughters or one of his brother’s daughters. Though it has absolutely nothing to do with this verse, rather because it has nothing to do with tribalism, Fabianski’s essay on preference for the niphil perfect participle over the plural cohortative to translate נשׄמע in Ecclesiastes 12:13 is well worth reading again.

     4.  anxious parents.  וְאִמּוֹ אָבִיו.  lxx ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ. Literally, “his mother and his father,” but what parents of a narcissist like Samson aren’t anxious - all the time!?

           God’s business. Yahweh’s. He will always be putting His oar in, but Samson is perfectly capable of batting it away.

Commentary

There are people that: when they want something, figure they should just take it - or better, order someone else to take it for them.

11.24.18