Old Testament Commentary - Judges 13

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 13 Israel in Philistine bondage for forty years—An angel comes to Manoah's wife and promises a son who shall begin to deliver Israel—The angel comes again; he ascends in a flame from the altar—Samson is born, and the Spirit of the Lord moves upon him.
1 AND the children of Israel did ^aevil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the ^bhand 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 ^aangel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art ^bbarren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and ^adrink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any ^bunclean thing: 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no ^arazor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to ^bdeliver 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 ^aan 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 order 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. 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 ^asecret?
19 So Manoah took a kid with a ^ameat ^boffering, 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 ^aseen God^a. 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.	22^a We shall surely die, because we have seen God. This was as the belief in Israel, but without understanding, for Moses had seen God face to face and so had Joshua and a number of others. A few items were amis here. First it is when God appears in his glory that man cannot stand in the glory of God. Also this was of course Jehovah, the ministering God of the Old Testament acting for, in behalf, and in the stead of his Father in Heaven. In the book of Ether of the Book of Mormon, chapter three, the Lord God Jehovah of the Old Testament, who is the same as Jesus Christ, did also appear unto Mohonri Moriancumr, the brother of Jared, in what was but his spirit body at the time. As the Lord had also appeared and spoken with Abraham in that debate concerning the fate of Sodom, so did the Lord here appear unto Manoah and his wife. And whatever degree of glory of the Lord was witnessed by them, they would have been protected by the presence of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost upon them. The fear of dying due to the seeing of God was more of the fear of the people, and though the natural man cannot bear the presence of the 'Glory of God' without protection, it is very well comfirmed that many of both the Old and New Testament have seen and witnessed God either in a less glorious state and manifestation of God or else in such a protected state of the presence of the Holy Ghost upon them to protect them and with their 'spiritual eyes'.
24 ¶ And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.