‘ And the Angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren, and are unproductive, but you will conceive, and bear a son.” '
Once again, as with the needy people in Judges 2:1-5, and with Gideon (Judges 6:11), the Angel of Yahweh appeared when God's people needed deliverance. In other words God Himself came to their assistance. This time His promise was of a special child who would be set apart as God's, even from the womb (compare 1 Samuel 1:11). But the writer went out of his way to demonstrate that the woman was not aware Whom the Angel represented. As far as she was at first aware (until Judges 13:16) He could have been any divinity. Such was the parlous state of her religious beliefs and those of their countrymen.