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?
What is thy name? Manoah's request elicited the most unequivocal proofs of the divinity of this supernatural Visitor-in his name "secret" [peli'y, wonderful] (used in regard to what is supernatural, cf. Isaiah 9:6), and in the miraculous flame that betokened the acceptance of the sacrifice. There was an extraordinary mystery enveloping the angel's appearance to Manoah and his wife, as well as in his subsequent procedure, which stamped him in the eyes of that pious pair as wonderful. There is a marked difference between the mode of the divine procedure in pre-intimating the births of Isaac and of Samson. 'While Yahweh enters Abraham's abode as a guest, and partakes of the food that is set before him, in the history of Manoah, on the contrary, "the angel of Jehovah" expressly declines to do so. How shall we explain this difference? In Abraham's case so intimate a relation subsists between him and his God, that he obtains a distinction which, in accordance with his exalted vocation as the Friend of God, he only could obtain. But another relation comes before us, where the standing-point of the theocratic law had revealed the alienation between God and man, and the majesty of God is there, even as on mount Sinai, a majesty fenced around with bounds that may not be passed' (Havernick's 'Introduction to the Pentateuch,' p. 160).