“Plowed with my heifer”
Judges 14:18
IdiomSettledSamson
What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? So he said to them: 'If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!' (Judges 14:18 BSB)
* A crude proverb: they got the answer only by pressuring Samson's bride, his 'heifer.' The image is of using someone else's animal, or wife, to do work that is not yours, here, prying out a secret.
What it sounds like today
A random insult about farming and cattle.
The cultural key
The Philistines could not solve the riddle, so they threatened Samson's bride until she wept the answer out of him and passed it on. Samson's retort is a barbed proverb: 'plowed with my heifer' likens their tactic to yoking another man's animal to do your work, they used his own wife as the tool to win. The image is deliberately crude, carrying a sexual edge as well, and it drips with the wounded pride of a man who knows he was beaten only by treachery through the person closest to him.
Recovered meaning
Samson snarls that his opponents cheated, prying the answer from him through his own bride. 'Plowing with another man's heifer' becomes his bitter proverb for solving a problem by exploiting someone else's insider.
Parallels: Judges 14:15; Judges 16:5