And the angel did wonderously— There is nothing for angel in the original, which might easily be construed thus: "So Manoah took a kid, with a meat-offering, and offered upon a rock unto the Lord; and he did wonderfully, Manoah and his wife looking on: for it came to pass," &c. ver.
20 in which verse we have an account of what this divine messenger did; most probably, bringing fire from the altar, as in the case of Gideon, chap. Joshua 6:21 out of the rock, to consume the burnt-offering, and then ascending in the midst of the flame to heaven. The celebrated Vitringa supposes, that it was the angel, who, upon this occasion, performed the principal functions of the priest; the most essential of which was to put the fire to the burnt-offering. Manoah, according to him, dared not to perform the offices of the priesthood in the presence of a personage whom he took for an extraordinary prophet commissioned from God. All that he did was done by the order of the angel, or as his minister; just as the Israelites obeyed Elijah afterwards, 1 Kings 18:34. See Vitringa, as quoted above.