
Semadar (died 1137 BC) was a Philistine noblewoman, the sister of Delilah, the betrothed of Samson, and the wife of Prince Ahtur. She was promised to Samson before Ahtur had her marry him while Samson was away gathering tunics to repay a lost bet made on their wedding day, causing Samson to start a fight with the Philistines on his return to the wedding. Semadar and her father Tubal were killed by the Philistines in the ensuing chaos.
Biography[]
Semadar was the elder daughter of Tubal and the sister of Delilah, and she was raised in a wealthy Philistine family in Timnah. Semadar was tomboyish, wearing men's armor and becoming a skilled javelin-thrower, causing both Prince Ahtur of the Philistines and the Israelite warrior Samson to fall in love with her. In 1137 BC, Samson proposed to marry her, even though Ahtur had made generous gifts to Tubal to secure his daughter's hand in marriage. The Saran of Gaza gave Samson permission to marry Semadar after Samson proved his strength by killing a lion and wrestling the Saran's warrior Garmiskar, though Ahtur and 30 Philistine soldiers were assigned to serve as Samson's groomsmen to ensure that no trouble occurred at the wedding.

Semadar's death
During the wedding, Ahtur repeatedly jibed at Samson, causing Samson to propose a riddle to the Philistine guests, hoping to prove them to be fools. He bet that if the Philistines could not answer it during the seven-day wedding feast, all of them would owe him an outfit of linen garments; Ahtur countered by having Samson agree to bring the same gifts to each of them if they guessed the riddle correctly. Semadar's sister Delilah, who was jealous of Samson's affection for his sister, proposed to the Philistines that they find the answer from Semadar. Ahtur entered Semadar's room and threatened to burn down her family's estate unless she gave the answer to the Philistines, and she was forced to agree to retrieve the answer from Samson. Samson, pressured by his betrothed, revealed that the answers to his riddle were a "lion" and "honey", as he had witnessed honeybees feast on the lion he had slain and create a hive. Semadar was touched that the riddle referenced the honeycomb that Samson had taken from the bees and gifted to her, and she was forced to let the Philistines know the answer. As Samson and Semadar began their hand-binding ceremony to marry, Ahtur interrupted the vows by revealing the answer to the riddle, forcing Samson to leave immediately to fetch thirty tunics. While Samson left to rob thirty Philistines of Ashkelon of their tunics, Ahtur married Semadar instead. When Samson returned with the robes and found out that Ahtur had taken Semadar, and Tubal attempted to persuade Samson to marry Delilah, Samson went to confront Semadar in his room. He found Ahtur there, and, in a fit of rage, he picked up Ahtur, took him from the room, and threw him from a balcony at the other Philistine guests, starting a fight. A Philistine soldier attempted to throw a javelin at Samson, but Tubal warned him not to, and told Semadar to run. The Philistine warrior still threw the javelin, accidentally impaling Semadar and pinning her to a wall. Samson mourned her death and lamented that the Philistines had brought fire and death as gifts to his wedding, while swearing that he would repay them in kind. Samson then set fire to the Philistines' fields in punishment, and he began a guerrilla war against the Philistine occupiers of Israel.