Judgeschapter 13
25 verses · Samuel, by tradition · 11th century BC · History
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.
Introduction
Samuel, by tradition, History, Judges Overview.
This chapter was written for Israelites who lived near the Philistine border or remembered those who did, and tradition gives the book to Samuel. It opens the last and longest account of a deliverer by going back before his birth, to a quiet household in a small town. It asks how God begins to rescue a people who have stopped asking for help. Listen for the difference between the husband and the wife in how they receive a visitor from God. Notice the terms laid on the child before he is born, since the chapters after this one test each of them. Watch also for the question of a name.
Context
- Who
- Israelites of Dan and Judah living on the border of Philistine territory, under a rule that had lasted a generation
- What
- An account of the angel of the LORD announcing Samson's birth to Manoah's wife, the Nazirite terms laid on the child, and his birth.
- Where
- Zorah in the lowland on the edge of the Sorek valley, with the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
- When
- About 1100 BC on the traditional reckoning, at the start of the forty years of Philistine rule.
- Why
- To show God raising a deliverer for a people under Philistine rule who had not cried out to Him.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Manoah of Zorah, a Danite, and to his wife, who is never named anywhere in Scripture and who receives both of the visits the chapter records.
Show the rest of the historical context, 7 more paragraphs
The forty years of Philistine rule open here, about 1100 BC on the traditional reckoning. They are the longest oppression in Judges, against eighteen years under Moab at Judges 3:14 and twenty under Jabin at Judges 4:3.
Zorah stands in Judah's lowland list at Joshua 15:33 and in Dan's at Joshua 19:41, on the edge of the Sorek valley where the hill country drops toward the coastal plain. That valley is the road the rest of the Samson account runs along.
The occasion is a childless household and a nation that has not asked for help. Six times the book has Israel cry out to the LORD, and this cycle carries no such cry.
A first hearer knew who the Philistines were and how recently they had come. The dossier of this site records the archaeology: settlement horizons at Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron, which is Tel Miqne, from about 1175 BC, where Aegean style pottery made locally, new architecture, hearths and a changed diet appear suddenly at the start of the Iron Age, matching the records of the Sea Peoples that Ramesses III left at Medinet Habu.
He knew the Nazirite vow from Numbers 6, and he knew that it was normally voluntary and for a fixed term. Here it is laid on a child from the womb and never lifted, which is the shape of the dedication Hannah makes at 1 Samuel 1:11.
He knew what the vow actually barred: wine and strong drink and anything that comes of the vine, down to seeds and skins, at Numbers 6:3 and 4; a razor, at Numbers 6:5; and contact with any dead body, holding even for a father or mother, at Numbers 6:6 and 7.
And he knew why Manoah expected to die. Exodus 33:20 says no man may see God and live, and Gideon had said the same thing at Judges 6:22 and been answered from heaven.
Significance
A nation forty years into an occupation, with no record of anyone asking for help, is told through a childless woman that a deliverer is coming.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
The promise was deliberately partial and the first hearers would have felt it. He will begin to deliver Israel, which is what the word says, and the Philistines were still there for Samuel and for David.
The steadiest voice in the chapter is the wife's. Her husband concludes they are about to die and she answers from what God has already done, and Scripture never gives her a name.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
In the synagogue this chapter is heard as a Haftarah, and the portion it follows is Nasso, which carries the law of the Nazirite. That law sets out a vow taken for a term, under which a man or a woman keeps clear of the grape, leaves the hair uncut and avoids a corpse. The reading from Judges carries the announcement of a child who is to hold the same terms from the womb, with his mother put under the abstentions while she carries him. A congregation hears the law first and then hears the case of it. That the pairing turns on the Nazirite vow is the writer's reading of the table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts and of the two passages, confirmed against both.
How it is read
Rashi reads the angel's instructions as the Nazirite law laid on the mother. The drink she is to keep from he glosses from the Targum as "Freshly pressed or aged wine", and the defilement as "Anything prohibited to the Nazirite", adding that grape extract is included as well as wine (Rashi on Judges 13:4:1 and 13:7:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY, the second citing Sotah 9b). The razor is named from what it does, "as it flings off and casts away the hair" (Rashi on Judges 13:5:1, same edition). He takes Manoah's question about the boy as a question about the parents, "What should appropriately be done with the boy, what must we do with him?", following the Targum and observing that the question was about their own duty rather than the child's (Rashi on Judges 13:12:1, same edition). On the angel's refusal to give a name he says the name "is concealed. It changes constantly", so that its identity remains unknown on any given day (Rashi on Judges 13:18:1, same edition). On Manoah walking behind his wife he glosses the phrase as "Following her advice", and on the Spirit beginning to stir Samson he says it was "Visiting him intermittently" (Rashi on Judges 13:11:1 and 13:25:1, same edition). Radak and Metzudat David comment across the chapter and the corpus holds no English version of either here, so they stand as citations: Radak on Judges 13:1:1, Radak on Judges 13:2:1, Radak on Judges 13:6:1, Radak on Judges 13:19:1, Radak on Judges 13:20:1, Radak on Judges 13:21:1, Metzudat David on Judges 13:3:1, Metzudat David on Judges 13:13:1 and Metzudat David on Judges 13:22:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-three of them Midrash and seven Talmud, each a locator without text. The Nazirite terms laid on the mother draw Sotah 9b:19, Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Nazir 6, Ein Yaakov, Nazir 1:4, Ein Yaakov, Nazir 9:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nazir 9:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:9 and Jerusalem Talmud Nazir 6:2:3. The household at Zorah draws Bava Batra 91a:11, Esther Rabbah 6:2 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 2:19. The angel's two visits, first to the wife alone and then with her husband, draw Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5, Bamidbar Rabbah 10:6, Berakhot 61a:22 and Eruvin 18b:5. The angel's appearance and the fear it raised draw Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 1:1, Midrash Tehillim 103:13, Vayikra Rabbah 1:1, Bereshit Rabbah 45:7 and Bereshit Rabbah 78:4. The name withheld draws Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 32:30:2, where the same withholding at the Jabbok is treated. The birth and the first stirring of the Spirit draw Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:5, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 1:29 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:23. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Judges 13:4:1, 13:5:1, 13:7:1, 13:11:1, 13:12:1, 13:18:1 and 13:25:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Judges 13:1:1, 13:2:1, 13:6:1, 13:19:1, 13:20:1 and 13:21:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Judges 13:3:1, 13:13:1 and 13:22:1, cited only; MannaFest, the readings table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, for the portion Nasso, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
An angel to a barren woman: no razor on his head
Judges 13:1-2
delivered them into the hand: This is the seventh and last time the book says the Israelites “did evil in the sight of the LORD”, after 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1 and 10:6. Forty years is the longest servitude in Judges, and no verse in this cycle says Israel cried out to the LORD, so God moves toward a deliverer unasked. Zorah stands in Judah's list at Joshua 15:33 and in Dan's at Joshua 19:41.
Judges 13:1
“The Philistines have been mentioned as oppressors of Israel in Jdg 3:31; Jdg 10:7, Jdg 10:11; and the Israelite worship of the gods of the Philistines is spoken of in Jdg 10:6. But this is the first time that we have any detailed history in connection with the Philistines. They continned to be the prominent enemies of Israel until the time of David. Forty years - The Philistine dominion began before the birth of Samson Jdg 13:5, and was in force during Samson’s twenty years’ judgeship Jdg 14:4; Jdg 15:20. The 40 years are, therefore, about coincident with Samson’s life.”
The barren wife of Manoah joins the mothers of Isaac, Jacob and Samuel, and Albert Barnes reads her barrenness as the mark of a child born for a purpose. Matthew Henry connects the Danites of Zorah with Genesis 49:16, where Dan will judge his people. The name Dan means judge.
Judges 13:2
“Zorah - See the marginal reference. His wife was barren - To mark more distinctly the high providential destiny of the child that was eventually born. Compare the similar circumstances of the birth of Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, and John the Baptist.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:2
“Dan signifies a judge or judgment, Gen. xxx. And probably it was with an eye to Samson that dying Jacob foretold, Dan shall judge his people, that is, "he shall produce a judge for his people, though one of the sons of the handmaids, as one, as well as any one, of the tribes of Israel," Gen. xlix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 13:3-5
The messenger comes to the wife, and at verse 4 she is put under part of the vow herself. Numbers 6:2 makes the Nazirite vow voluntary and for a set term, and here it is laid on a boy “from the womb”, as Hannah vows at 1 Samuel 1:11. The promise is measured, since he “will begin the deliverance of Israel”, and David finishes it.
Judges 13:3
“The angel of the Lord - Generally supposed to have been the same that appeared to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, etc., and no other than the second person of the ever-blessed Trinity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke holds that the woman had to live as a Nazirite, with no wine or strong drink and nothing unclean, while she carried the boy. John Wesley gives the reason. What made the mother unclean reached the child in the womb.
Judges 13:4
“Beware - drink not wine - As Samson was designed to be a Nazarite from the womb, it was necessary that, while his mother carried and nursed him, she should live the life of a Nazarite, neither drinking wine nor any inebriating liquor, nor eating any kind of forbidden meat. See the account of the Nazarite and his vow in the notes on Num 6:2 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry sets the boy beside Isaac as a son of promise, announced by the angel of the LORD before the woman could conceive. Henry reads the Nazirite to God from the womb as a figure of Christ. The razor is the outward sign.
Judges 13:5
“The mother was, therefore, for the sake of her promised offspring, required to practice the rigid abstinence of the Nazarite law (see on Nu 6:2). he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines--a prophecy encouraging to a patriotic man; the terms of it, however, indicated that the period of deliverance was still to be distant.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:5
“A Nazarite - See the marginal reference. and note. The common Nazarite vow was for a limited time, like Paul’s Act 18:18; Act 21:23-26. Others, like Samuel 1Sa 1:11, were Nazarites for life.”
Judges 13:6-7
She calls him “A man of God” whose appearance was “like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome”, and says he gave no name. Her report adds a clause the angel did not speak at verse 5, “until the day of his death”, fixing the vow for life, and it leaves out the razor. The text does not say whether she was told more than verse 5 records.
Judges 13:6
“But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name - This clause is rendered very differently by the Vulgate, the negative Not being omitted: Quem cum interrogassem quis esset, et unde venisset, et quo nomine vocaretur, noluit mihi dicere; sed hoc respondit. “Who, when I asked who he was and whence he came, and by what name he was called, would not tell me; but this he said,” etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Judges 13:6
“The glad tidings were brought her when she was alone, perhaps religiously employed in meditation or prayer; but she could not, she would not, conceal them from her husband, but gives him an account, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 13:6
“A man of God - The designation of a prophet, of frequent use in the books of Samuel and Kings 1Sa 2:27; 1Sa 9:6-8, 1Sa 9:10; 1Ki 12:22; 1Ki 13:1, 1Ki 13:5-6, 1Ki 13:11, and applied to Timothy by Paul in the New Testament 1Ti 6:11; 2Ti 3:17. His countenance - Rather, “his appearance,” as the word is rendered in Dan 10:18.”
Matthew Henry notes that the woman tells her husband at once, so that he could believe the promise of a son and help her keep the charge. The words she carries home bind them both. The boy's vow begins with the house.
Judges 13:8-10
Manoah asks for a second visit and for teaching, and “God listened to the voice of Manoah”. The angel comes again to the woman alone in the field, so the man who asked to see him still has to be fetched. Adam Clarke reads the repeat appearance as what settled Manoah's mind about his wife's account, and Matthew Henry as God answering a man who wanted to know his duty.
Judges 13:8
“But he, informed of this, devoutly offered his prayers to God, that the grace of this vision might be conferred on him also, saying, "To me, Lord, let Thine Angel come." I am of opinion therefore that it was not from jealousy of his wife, because she was remarkable for her beauty that he acted thus, as one writer has supposed, but rather that he was filled with desire of the Divine grace, and sought to participate in the benefit of the heavenly vision.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Letter 19.11-12patristic
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see here the link God has set between prayer and the keeping of His promises: Manoah prays, and the visit comes. The promise was already given before he asked. The prayer brings a second visit.
Judges 13:9
“The angel of God came again - This second appearance of the angel was probably essential to the peace of Manoah, who might have been jealous of his wife had he not had this proof that the thing was of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry notes that the word other in the other day has no match in the Hebrew. Some read it as this day, with both visits of the man on the same day. The woman runs so that her husband can see him.
Judges 13:10
"Oh," says she, overjoyed, "my dear love, thy prayers are answered--yonder is the man of God, come to make us another visit--he that came the other day," or, as some read it, this day, for other is not in the original, and it is probable enough that both these visits were on the same day, and at the same place, and that the second time she sat expecting him.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 13:11-14
Manoah asks at verse 12 for the boy's “rule of life and mission”, and the angel points him back to his wife. Everything said to Manoah repeats what was said to her, and the charge stays on her: “She must do everything I have commanded her”. The ban on “anything that comes from the vine” follows Numbers 6:4, so the discipline this chapter describes is the mother's to keep.
Judges 13:11
“Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?--Manoah's intense desire for the repetition of the angel's visit was prompted not by doubts or anxieties of any kind, but was the fruit of lively faith, and of his great anxiety to follow out the instructions given. Blessed was he who had not seen, yet had believed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Albert Barnes renders the two nouns as the ordering of the child and his work, and the first message had already answered both: a Nazirite, who would begin Israel's deliverance. Manoah asks to hear it again. Matthew Henry reads the question as care to use a mercy well.
Judges 13:12
“Translate, “What shall be the manner (or ordering) of the child, and what shall be his work (or exploits).” The original message of the Angel had given information on these two points: (1) how the child was to be brought up, namely, as a Nazarite; (2) what he should do, namely, begin to deliver Israel. Manoah desires to have the information repeated (compare 1Sa 17:26-27, 1Sa 17:30). Accordingly, in Jdg 13:13 the Angel refers to, and enlarges upon, his former injunctions.”
John Gill observes that Manoah receives no new word from the angel of the LORD, only what the angel told his wife. Matthew Henry adds that neither husband nor wife may lay the charge on the other. Both must keep it.
Judges 13:13
“And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah,.... Giving him no direct answer to his question, either what should be done to the child, or what that should do; only reminds of and repeats what he had said to his wife, which she should be careful to observe and would, and that was enough for him to know: of all that I said to the woman, let her beware; take to abstain from everything in eating and drinking during the time of her going with child, he had joined, which are particularly repeated in the next verse.”
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:13
“Those that would preserve themselves pure must keep at a distance from that which borders upon sin or leads to it. When she was with child of a Nazarite, she must not eat any unclean thing; so those in whom Christ is formed must carefully cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and do nothing to the prejudice of that new man.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Anything that comes from the vine reaches past wine and strong drink to the fruit itself. Albert Barnes notes that the Hebrew, as at Numbers 6:4, names the vine that bears grapes for wine. Matthew Henry reads it as distance from sin.
A name too wonderful, and flame going up from the rock
Judges 13:15-16
Manoah offers to prepare “a young goat”, as Gideon did at 6:19, and the angel turns the meal into an offering: “offer it to the LORD”. Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry take the figure as the Son before his incarnation. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the words as correcting what Manoah supposed, since “Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD”.
Judges 13:15
“The language of Manoah, like that of Gideon Jdg 6:18, seems to indicate some suspicion that his visitor was more than human. The word rendered “made ready,” is also the proper word for “offering a sacrifice,” and is so used by the Angel in the next verse. By which it appears that the Angel understood Manoah to speak of offering a kid as a burnt-offering. Hence, his caution, “thou must offer it unto the Lord.” (Compare Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8; Act 10:25-26.)”
Adam Clarke reads the angel's refusal of food as the mark of a spirit who eats no earthly bread. Athanasius cites this verse to show that the burnt offering belongs to the LORD alone. Manoah is no priest, Matthew Henry notes, yet he offers it.
Judges 13:16
Therefore to God alone appertains worship, and this the very angels know, that though they excel other beings in glory, yet they are all creatures and not to be worshiped, but worship the Lord. Thus Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the angel, was thereupon hindered by him, saying, "Offer not to me, but to God." On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the angels; for it is written: "Let all the angels of God worship him."
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Discourses Against the Arians 2.16.23patristic
Judges 13:17-18
The angel refuses his name as Jacob was refused at Peniel in Genesis 32:29, asking in return why Manoah asks. The Hebrew word rendered “beyond comprehension” comes from the root behind the marvelous thing the LORD does at verse 19. Isaiah 9:6 uses that root for the first name of the child born to us, which is why Matthew Henry reads these verses together.
Judges 13:17
“Manoah said unto the angel . . ., What is thy name?--Manoah's request elicited the most unequivocal proofs of the divinity of his supernatural visitor--in his name "secret" (in the Margin, "wonderful"), and in the miraculous flame that betokened the acceptance of the sacrifice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:17
“Do thee honor - If applied to a man, it would be by gifts, such for instance as Balak promised to the prophet Balaam Num 22:17, and such as were usually given to seers 1Sa 9:7-8; 2Ki 5:5, 2Ki 5:15: if to God, it would be by sacrifices Isa 43:23.”
Gregory of Nyssa reads the angel's answer as teaching that no name can hold the nature of God, whose fitting name is wonder. Matthew Henry sets it beside Exodus 3:13-14, where Moses asked the name and was told. Manoah is given no name.
Judges 13:18
“Seeing it is secret? - It was because it was secret that they wished to know it. The angel does not say that it was secret, but הוא פלאי hu peli it is Wonderful; the very character that is given to Jesus Christ, Isa 9:6: His name shall be called, פלא Wonderful; and it is supposed by some that the angel gives this as his name, and consequently that he was our blessed Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 13:19-21
The offering goes up on a rock, and verse 20 calls that rock “the altar”, as Gideon's rock became at 6:20-21. There the fire rose out of the rock and the angel vanished, and here “the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame”. Verse 21 puts the knowledge last, since the visits stop and only then “Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD”.
Judges 13:19
“The angel did wondrously - He acted according to his name; he, being wonderful, performed wonderful things; probably causing fire to arise out of the rock and consume the sacrifice, and then ascending in the flame.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:19
“Meal-offering - Which were generally joined with the chief sacrifices. A Rock - The angel's presence and command being a sufficient warrant for the offering of sacrifice by a person who was no priest, and in a place otherwise forbidden.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ascended in the flame: John Wesley takes the angel of the LORD rising in the flame from the altar as a sign of his spiritual nature. Matthew Henry applies it to Christ, who entered the holy place by His own blood in Hebrews 9. Manoah and his wife fell facedown to the ground.
Judges 13:20
“The altar - That is, from that part of the rock which served instead of an altar, upon which the sacrifice was laid. Ascended - To manifest his nature and essence to be spiritual.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Gill places Manoah's knowledge in what he saw: the fire on the rock and the angel of the LORD going up in the flame unharmed. Matthew Henry notes that Manoah and his wife looked on in silence. The angel did not appear again.
Judges 13:21
“But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife,.... As the flame and smoke ascended, he disappeared therewith, and was seen no more: then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord; by the wondrous things he did, causing fire to come down from heaven, or out of the rock, ascending in the midst of the flame, without being hurt by it, and going up to heaven in it.”
Judges 13:22-23
The fear has texts behind it, since Exodus 33:20 says no one may see God and live, and Gideon is answered with peace at 6:22-23. Here his wife answers, reasoning that the LORD would not have “accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering” if He meant to kill them. She is never named in Scripture, and the plainest argument in the chapter is hers.
Judges 13:22
The first remark arising out of the story of Manoah and his wife is this—that oftentimes we pray for blessings which will make us tremble when we receive them. Manoah had asked that he might see the Angel and he saw Him—in answer to His request the Wonderful One condescended to reveal Himself a second time, but the consequence was that the good man was filled with astonishment and dismay. And turning to His wife, he exclaimed, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:22
“And are you not amazed at Manoah the Judge of yore... the one being unable to endure the sight even of one in whom was a representation of God; and saying, "We are undone, O wife, we have seen God;" speaking as though even a vision of God could not be grasped by human beings, let alone the Nature of God.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · THEOLOGICAL ORATIONS 2 (28).19patristic
Matthew Henry reads the fire that took the burnt offering and the grain offering as the sign the LORD had accepted it, a ransom for their lives. John Wesley adds that God had shown them these things in a time of oppression. Charles Spurgeon called it her excellent argument.
Judges 13:23
“Had he thought fit to kill us, (1.) He would not have accepted our sacrifice, and signified to us his acceptance of it by turning it to ashes, Ps. xx. The sacrifice was the ransom of our lives, and the fire fastening upon that was a plain indication of the turning away of his wrath from us. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, but you see ours is not so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 13:24-25
The name Samson stands close to the Hebrew word for sun, and Beth-shemesh, the house of the sun, sits along the same valley from Zorah. The Spirit of the LORD comes on this man four times, at 13:25, 14:6, 14:19 and 15:14, and once each on Othniel, Gideon and Jephthah. Here the Spirit “began to stir him”, the start of a life, and 16:31 buries him between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 13:24
“And called his name Samson - The original שמשון shimshon, which is from the root שמש shamash, to serve, (whence shemesh, the sun), probably means either a little sun, or a little servant; and this latter is so likely a name to be imposed on an only son, by maternal fondness, that it leaves but little doubt of the propriety of the etymology. And the Lord blessed him - Gave evident proofs that the child was under the peculiar protection of the Most High; causing him to increase daily in stature and extraordinary strength.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:24
“And the woman bare a son, and called name Samson,.... After these appearances were over, Manoah and his wife returned to their habitation, and she soon became pregnant, and at the usual course of time brought forth a son, and she gave him the name of Samson; for what reason it is not easy to determine.”
Mahaneh-dan means the camp of the Danites, and Adam Clarke ties the name to the place the Danites camped in Judges 18:12. Albert Barnes reads the Spirit of the LORD stirring Samson as anger at Israel's bondage. Caesarius of Arles says Samson's strength came by grace.
Judges 13:25
“And why should i speak of all one by one? Samson, born by the divine promise, had the Spirit accompanying him, for we read: "The Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp." And so foreshadowing the future mystery, he demanded a wife of the aliens, which, as it is written, his father and mother knew not of, because it was from the Lord.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Holy Spirit 2, Introduction, 5patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Judges 13:25
“In the camp of Dan - Rather, “Mahaneh-Dan” (see the margin). The impulses of the Spirit of the Lord perhaps took the shape of burning indignation at the subjection of his brethren, and thoughts and plans for their deliverance, but especially showed themselves in feats of strength (Jdg 14:6; Jdg 15:14; Jdg 16:30. Compare Act 7:23-25).”
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative prose carrying an annunciation, with the messenger appearing twice, refusing his name, and departing in the flame of the offering, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The seventh time the sentence is said | The Berean text says the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD at 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6 and 13:1. Verse 1 is the seventh and last of them, and the forty years it reports is the longest servitude in the book, against the eighteen of Moab at 3:14 and the twenty of Jabin at 4:3. The count was made over the store's own Berean text for this lane and is printed in its report.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Judges 13:1. | Judges 13:1, Judges 2:11, Judges 10:6 |
| The charge given to the wife and repeated to the husband | The messenger comes to the woman at verse 3 and puts part of the vow on her at verse 4, so the abstinence begins before the child does. Manoah asks at verse 12 how the boy is to be raised, and the answer at verses 13 and 14 sends him back to what was already said to her. Everything laid on the household in this chapter is laid on her, and nothing further is put on the boy beyond the razor of verse 5.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 13:11 to 14. | Judges 13:3, Judges 13:4, Judges 13:5, Judges 13:12, Judges 13:13, Judges 13:14 |
| The name withheld and the wonder done | Manoah asks the name at verse 17 and the answer at verse 18 says it is beyond comprehension. Verse 19 then reports that the LORD did a marvellous thing, and the Hebrew root behind the refusal is the root behind the act. Isaiah 9:6 uses that same root for the first of the names given the child born to us, which is why Matthew Henry reads the two verses together.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 13:17 to 19. | Judges 13:17, Judges 13:18, Judges 13:19 |
| The kid on the rock, told twice in one book | Gideon prepares a young goat under the oak at Ophrah at Judges 6:19, the angel tells him to set it on the rock, and fire comes up out of the rock. Manoah prepares a young goat at verse 15 and the offering goes up on a rock that verse 20 then calls the altar. The endings differ in one detail worth seeing: there the fire rose out of the rock and the angel went from sight, and here the angel goes up in the flame of the offering itself.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Judges 13:19 to 21. | Judges 6:19, Judges 6:20, Judges 6:21, Judges 13:15, Judges 13:19, Judges 13:20 |
The structure
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter is built around a man asking for what he has already been given. Manoah prays at verse 8 for the messenger to come again and teach them, and verses 13 and 14 give him the same charge his wife received. He asks to see, and he has to be fetched. He asks the name, and he is refused. He fears death, and his wife answers him.
The knowledge comes last. Verse 21 puts it plainly: the visits stopped, and then Manoah understood who had been there.
The Nazirite terms
Numbers 6:2 makes the Nazirite vow voluntary and for a set term. Here it is laid on a boy from the womb and never lifted, which is the shape of the dedication Hannah makes at 1 Samuel 1:11. Numbers 6:3 and 4 bar wine and strong drink and anything that comes of the vine, reaching to seeds and skins. Numbers 6:5 bars the razor. Numbers 6:6 and 7 bar contact with any dead body, even a father's or a mother's. Each of those three terms is tested in the chapters that follow, and the record of what Samson did with them is Judges 14 to 16.
The Spirit in this book
The Berean text has the Spirit of the LORD come upon a man at 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 14:19 and 15:14, which is seven places, and four of them are Samson. Verse 25 is the first of his four, and its wording describes a beginning rather than a single act. The count was made over the store's own Berean text for this lane and is printed in its report.
Across the canon
Zorah stands in Judah's lowland list at Joshua 15:33 and in Dan's at Joshua 19:41, and Dan is the tribe that Judges 18:1 shows still looking for ground to live on. Zorah and Eshtaol open the account at verse 25 and close it at Judges 16:31, where Samson is buried between the two towns in his father's grave.
The refused name at verse 18 has its match at Genesis 32:29, where Jacob asks the name at Peniel and is asked in return why he asks.
Manoah's fear at verse 22 has texts behind it. Exodus 33:20 says no man may see God and live, Genesis 32:30 has Jacob marvel that his life was spared, and Gideon says the same thing at Judges 6:22 and is answered from heaven with peace. Here no voice answers, and his wife reasons from what has already happened.
In the New Testament
Hebrews 11:32 names Samson among the faithful, with Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, David and Samuel. The chapters that follow this one record him breaking the terms of the vow he was born under, and the site's Evidence Standard holds the commendation and the record together as they are written.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2012; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Judges 13 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Judges 13:22 to 23.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 118; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1340: “Manoah's Wife and Her Excellent Argument”; Gregory of Nyssa, AGAINST EUNOMIUS; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.