In the Bible, a saying whose meaning is not immediately clear or is purposely veiled. The clearest example of a riddle is Samson’s riddle of the lion and the honey, whose answer was to be guessed by his groomsmen (Judg 14:12-19). The queen of Sheba also asked Solomon “hard questions” (1Kgs 10:1; 1Chr 9:1), and the mark of a wise person was the ability to understand riddles (Prov 1:6; Dan 5:11-12). However, a riddle could refer more broadly to an allegory in which the meaning was deliberately veiled behind symbolic objects (Ezek 17:2-24; Ezek 24:1-15) and could also include “dark speech” that required interpretation (Num 12:8; John 10:6; John 16:25; John 16:29). A perplexing moral problem could be termed a riddle (Ps 49:4), and the numerical sayings of (Prov 30 (vv. Prov 30:15-31) illustrate a riddle form in which are described things “too wonderful” to be easily understood (vv. Prov 30:18-20).
