Judges 13:1-24 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Birth of Samson.

Judges 13:1. D's usual introduction.

Judges 13:2. Zorah (p. 31) is now Sar-' a, 800 ft. above the valley of Sorek (Wady es-Surâ r), 17 m. W. of Jerusalem. In Joshua 15:33 and 2 Chronicles 11:16 it is no longer Danite, but Judahite, evidently because the Danites of the town had moved to the north (Judges 18).

Judges 13:3. On the angel of the Lord see 21*. The words but thou shalt conceive and bear a son belong to Judges 13:5, and should be deleted here.

Judges 13:4. The idea was that a person who partook of anything fermented or putrified was thereby rendered unfit for consecration to the Deity.

Judges 13:5. As a Nazirite (pp. 103, 105) Samson was set apart, not by his own voluntary act but by the will of God, from the day of his birth and during his whole life, the sign of his consecration being his unshorn hair. He was not required to abstain from wine. The post-exilic Nazirite (Numbers 6*) bound himself by a vow for a time, during which he abstained from wine, and on the expiry of his vow he cut off his hair and presented it at the sanctuary. In Judges 13:5 b read he will be the first to deliver Israel.

Judges 13:6. A man of God was an inspired man, a prophet (1 Samuel 2:27; 1 Samuel 9:6-8; 1 Kings 12:22, etc.). So impressed was Manoah's wife that she abstained from asking the questions which she would have put to an ordinary stranger: What is thy name? Whence comest thou?

Judges 13:12. Manoah asks (1) what will be the manner of the child, the mode of his upbringing, the regimen prescribed for him, and (2) what will be his calling or occupation. Instead of answering his questions, Yahweh's angel repeats the injunctions already given to the mother.

Judges 13:16. With His refusal to eat bread contrast Genesis 18:8, noting the gradual spiritualising of ideas regarding God.

Judges 13:17 f. Like Jacob (Genesis 32:29 *), Manoah asks, but in vain, what is the Divine name, which is inscrutable. Not God's unwillingness to reveal Himself, but man's incapacity for a fuller revelation, is the ground of mystery.

Judges 13:19. Cf. Judges 6:19-21. Many scholars read unto the Lord that doeth wondrously. The remaining words belong to Judges 13:20.

Judges 13:21 indicates another advance in theological reflection. Once on a time God walked and talked with men; now it is death to see God (cf. 1 Samuel 28:13). Yet a woman's quick instinct conquers fear.

Judges 13:24. Samson comes from Shemesh, the sun, and means either sunny or little sun. Only the width of the valley separated Zorah from Beth-Shemesh (p. 31), the house of the sun, evidently an ancient centre of sun-worship.

Judges 13:25. The superhuman energy which Samson began to display is ascribed to the working of Yahweh's spirit in him (see Judges 3:10 *). What is said of Mahaneh-dan does not agree with Judges 18:12; and some propose to read Manahath-dan, the home of the Manoah clan.

Related Commentaries of Judges 13:1

Judges 13:1-24

1 And the children of Israel did evila again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

2 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.

3 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:

5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name:

7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

8 Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.

10 And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day.

11 And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am.

12 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we orderb the child, and how shall we do unto him?

13 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.

14 She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.

15 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.c

16 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.

17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour?

18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.

21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.

22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.

24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.