There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless. Yahweh’s angel appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing; for, behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name; but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Don’t eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”
Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, “Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us, and teach us what we should do to the child who shall be born.”
God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah, her husband, wasn’t with her. The woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, saying to him, “Behold, the man who came to me that day has appeared to me,”
Manoah arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He said, “I am.”
Manoah said, “Now let your words happen. What shall the child’s way of life and mission be?”
Yahweh’s angel said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded her.”
Manoah said to Yahweh’s angel, “Please stay with us, that we may make a young goat ready for you.”
Yahweh’s angel said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I won’t eat your bread. If you will prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh.” For Manoah didn’t know that he was Yahweh’s angel.
Manoah said to Yahweh’s angel, “What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you?”
Yahweh’s angel said to him, “Why do you ask about my name, since it is incomprehensible?”
So Manoah took the young goat with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh. Then the angel did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. For when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, Yahweh’s angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife watched; and they fell on their faces to the ground. But Yahweh’s angel didn’t appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then Manoah knew that he was Yahweh’s angel. Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”
But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, and he wouldn’t have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time.” The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19, 23 Signifying, that their deliverance came only of God, and…
Signifying, that their deliverance came only of God, and not by man’s power.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–24 Jdg 13:2 And there was a certain man of…
Jdg 13:2 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.
Ver. 2. A certain man of Zorah.] Samson’s country, much ennobled by his name: as afterwards Co was by Hippocrates, Arpinum by Cicero, Hippo by Augustine, &c.
Read full note →
And his wife was barren.] What her name was is not recorded; written her name was in the Book of Life, and the Lord knoweth all his by name, and will give them a name in his house better than of sons and of daughters. {Isa 56:5} A good woman she was, and the better, doubtless, for her barrenness: which was a great means to humble, and so to prepare her for such a mercy in her son Samson. It is observed that the barren women in both Testaments had the best children: as Sarah, Rachel, Elizabeth, &c. David also had his best sons by Bathsheba, after that they had been soundly humbled for their sin.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24 Zorah; a city, of which see Jos 15:33; 19:41.
Zorah; a city, of which see Jos 15:33; 19:41.
Of the family, i.e. of the tribe or people, as family sometimes signifies, Jos 7:17; Jer 8:3; 10:25; Amo 3:1; Mic 2:3; Zec 14:18.
Read full note →
Barren, and bare not; an emphatical repetition of the same thing in divers words, which is a usual elegancy, both in Scripture and other authors.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv8, 15, 24 We have here an account of a second visit…
We have here an account of a second visit which the angel of God made to Manoah and his wife.
I. Manoah earnestly prayed for it, Jdg 13:8. He was not incredulous of the story his wife told him; he knew she was a virtuous woman, and therefore the heart of her husband did safely trust in her; he knew she would not go about to impose upon him, much less was he, as Josephus unworthily represents him, jealous of his wife's conversation with this stranger; but, 1. He takes it for granted that this child of promise shall in due time be given them, and speaks without hesitation of the child that shall be born. There was not found so great faith, no, not in Zechariah, a priest, then in waiting at the altar of the Lord, and to whom the angel himself appeared, as was in this honest Danite. Things hidden from the wise and prudent, who value themselves upon the niceness of their enquiries, are often revealed unto babes, who know how to prize God's gifts and to take God's word. Blessed are those that have not seen and yet, as Manoah here, have believed. 2. All his care is what they should do to the child that should be born. Note, Good men are more solicitous and desirous to know the duty that is to be done by them than to know the events that shall occur concerning them; for duty is ours, events are God's. Solomon enquires concerning the good men should do, not the good they should have, Ecc 2:3. 3. He therefore prays to God to send the same blessed messenger again, to give them further instructions concerning the management of this Nazarite, fearing lest his wife's joy for the promise might have made her forget some part of the precept, in which he was desirous to be fully informed, and lie under no mistake: "Lord, let the man of God come again unto us, for we desire to be better acquainted with him." Note, Those that have heard from heaven cannot but wish to hear more thence, again and again to meet with the man of God. Observe, He does not go or send his servants abroad, to find out this man of God, but seeks him upon his knees, prays to God to send him, and, thus seeking, finds him. Would we have God's messengers, the ministers of his gospel, to bring a word proper for us, and for our instruction? Entreat the Lord to send them to us, to teach us, Rom 15:30, Rom 15:32.
Read full note →
II. God graciously granted it: God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, Jdg 13:9. Note, God will not fail some way or other to guide those by his counsel that are sincerely desirous to know their duty, and apply themselves to him to teach them, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9.
1. The angel appears the second time also to the wife, when she is sitting alone, probably tending the flocks, or otherwise well employed in the field where she has retired. Solitude is often a good opportunity of communion with God; good people have thought themselves never less alone than when alone, if God be with them.
2. She goes in all haste to call her husband, doubtless humbly beseeching the stay of this blessed messenger till she should return and her husband with her, Jdg 13:10, Jdg 13:11. She did not desire him to go with her to her husband, but would fetch her husband to him. Those that would meet with God must attend where he is pleased to manifest himself. "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. The man of God is very willing she should call her husband, Joh 4:16. Those that have an acquaintance with the things of God themselves should invite others to the same acquaintance, Joh 1:45, Joh 1:46. Manoah is not disgusted that the angel did not this second time appear to him, but very willingly goes after his wife to the man of God. To atone (as it were) for the first fatal miscarriage, when Eve earnestly pressed Adam to that which was evil, and he too easily yielded to her, let yoke-fellows excite one another to love and good works; and, if the wife will lead, let not the husband think it any disparagement to him to follow her in that which is virtuous and praiseworthy.
3. Manoah having come to the angel, and being satisfied by him that he was the same that had appeared to his wife, does, with all humility, (1.) Welcome the promise (Jdg 13:12): Now let thy words come to pass; this was the language, not only of his desire, but of his faith, like that of the blessed Virgin, Luk 1:38. "Be it according to thy word. Lord, I lay hold on what thou hast said, and depend upon it; let it come to pass." (2.) Beg that the prescriptions given might be repeated: How shall we order the child? The directions were given to his wife, but he looks upon himself as concerned to assist her in the careful management of this promised seed, according to order; for the utmost care of both the parents, and their constant joint endeavour, are little enough to be engaged for the good ordering of children that are devoted to God and to be brought up for him. Let not one devolve it on the other, but both do their best. Observe from Manoah's enquiry, [1.] In general, that, when God is pleased to bestow any mercy upon us, our great care must be how to use it well, and as we ought, because it is then only a mercy indeed when it is rightly managed. God has given us bodies, souls, estates; how shall we order them, that we may answer the intent of the donor, and give a good account of them? [2.] In particular, those to whom God has given children must be very careful how they order them, and what they do unto them, that they may drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts, form their minds and manners well betimes, and train them in the way wherein they should go. Herein pious parents will beg divine assistance. "Lord, teach us how we may order our children, that they may be Nazarites, and living sacrifices to thee."
4. The angel repeats the directions he had before given (Jdg 13:13, Jdg 13:14): Of all that I forbad let her beware; and all that I commanded her let her observe. Note, There is need of a good deal both of caution and observation, for the right ordering both of ourselves and of our children. Beware and observe; take heed not only of drinking wine or strong drink, but of eating any thing that cometh of the vine. 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's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–24 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of…
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,.... Of the tribe of Dan, in which tribe Zorah was, and seems to have lain both on the borders of Judah and Dan, Jos 15:33; See Gill on Jos 15:33; see Gill on Jos 19:41, and this man was not a mean man, but of rank and figure, a principal man in the country, according to Josephus (g); though the Talmudists (h) say he was a plebeian:
whose name was Manoah; which signifies "rest", and has much the same signification as Noah; and by this name he was well known in those times, and among his people:
Read full note →
and his wife was barren, and bare not; had no child, as the Targum; and it is observed by many, that several eminent persons were born of women that had been barren, as Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, and John the Baptist; and it is remarkable, that the strongest man that ever was born of such a woman, as the following account relates. The name of this woman, the mother of Samson, is said (i) to be Zalalponith; see Ch1 4:3.
(g) Antique. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 2. (h) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 61. 1. (i) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 91. 1. Juchasin, fol. 10. 8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24 Of the family - That is, of the tribe…
Of the family - That is, of the tribe or people. Bare not - An emphatical repetition of the same thing in other words, which is an usual elegancy both in scripture and other authors.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 Verse 2. A certain man of Zorah] A town…
Verse 2. A certain man of Zorah] A town in the tribe of Judah, but afterwards given to Dan.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23, 24 Jdg 13:2-3. Of the family of the Danites —…
Jdg 13:2-3. Of the family of the Danites — That is, of that tribe or people. His wife was barren, and bare not — An emphatical repetition of the same thing in other words, which is a usual elegance both in Scripture and other authors. The angel — The Son of God, yet distinguished from the Lord, because he appeared here in the form of a servant, as a messenger sent from God. The great Redeemer did in a particular manner concern himself about this typical redemption.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 24 Zorah - See the marginal reference.
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 Saraa, in the confines of Juda and of Dan,…
Saraa, in the confines of Juda and of Dan, ten miles north of Eleutheropolis. (Eusebius) --- Manue seems to have resided in the country, near this town, ver. 25. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv2, 8, 24 An angel foretells the birth of Samson
An angel foretells the birth of Samson
Jdg_13:2-7.
Read full note →
2And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose 3name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. And the [an] angel of the Lord [Jehovah] appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold, now, 4thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore [And now] beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, 5and eat not any unclean thing: For lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child [boy] shall be a Nazarite unto [of] God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of 6the Philistines. Then [And] the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance [appearance] was like the countenance [appearance] of an angel of God, very terrible [august]: but [and] 7I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: But [And] 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 [boy] shall be a Nazarite to [of] God from the womb to the day of his death.
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Jdg_13:2-3. And there was a certain man of Zorah. In the times of Israel’s penitence, men rose up filled with the Spirit of God; when this was not the case, God had to bring forth the hero for himself. Samson’s election was unlike that of any other Judge. Concerning Othniel and Ehud, it is simply said, “and God set them up as deliverers” (וַיָקֶם). Barak was called through Deborah, who was a prophetess. An “angel of God” came also to liberate the people from Midian; but he came to Gideon, a man of valor already proved. Jephthah’s case has just been considered. The election of Samson presents an altogether different phase. He is chosen before he is born. An angel of God comes, not to him, but to his mother. Jephthah is recognized by Gilead as the right man, because he has begun (יָחֵל) to triumph over the enemy. In Samson’s case, it is predicted to hi mother that her son “shall begin” (יָחֵל) to deliver Israel.
The father of Samson was of Zorah (see below on Jdg_13:25), of the race of Dan; whence Samson is also called Bedan (1Sa_12:11). He bears the beautiful name Manoah, “Rest,” equivalent to the Greek ‘́Ησυχος, Hesychius,—a name sufficiently peculiar for the father of so restless a spirit as Samson. The name of his wife is not given. Jewish tradition (Baba Bathra, 91) derives her from the tribe Judah, and with reference to 1Ch_4:3, names her Zelelponi or Hazelelponi. The parents were at first childless. The mother was barren, as Sarah was before her. But it is not related of her, any more than of Sarah, that she prayed for a son. This can only be inferred from the similar instance of Hannah (1Sa_1:10); but it does not appear, that, like Hannah, she made a vow. Nor is it said of her and Manoah that they were old, as in the cases of Sarah and Elizabeth (Luk_1:7). They were pious, uncomplaining people, who lived in retirement, and had hitherto borne their childless condition with trustful resignation. Nevertheless, it was this childless condition that peculiarly adapted the wife for the right reception of the announcement which is made to her. The joy which it inspires prepares her fully for the sacrifice which it requires. It holds out a scarcely hoped for happiness, which she will gladly purchase with the restraints imposed upon her. But this is not the only ground why she is chosen. An announcement like that made to her requires faith in the receiver. The pious disposition of the parents shows itself in this faith, by which, less troubled with doubt than Sarah and Zacharias, they receive as certain that which is announced to them.
Jdg_13:4. And now beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor intoxicating drink. For Samson, the child that is to be born to her, shall be a “Nazir of God.” The ideas which here come to light, are of uncommon instructiveness. They reveal a surprisingly free and discriminating conception of the life and wants of the Israel of that time. Farreaching thoughts, which still influence the Christian Church of our own day, are reflected in them.
I. The law of the Nazarite and his vow, in Numbers 6, rests upon the great presuppositions which are implied in Israel’s calling. In Exo_19:6, God says to Israel, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation;” but he precedes it (Jdg_13:5) by the words, “Ye shall be a possession unto me out of all nations, for all the earth is mine.” All nations are God’s; but among them, Israel was to be his holy people; and the law expresses in symbolic actions the moral ideas through which Israel exhibits itself as holy and consecrated. Within the holy nation, the priests occupy the same relation which the nation holds to the world. Their service, in sacrifice, prayer, and atonement, expresses especially consecration and nearness to God. Moreover, with respect to this service they have likewise a law, whose external command represents the internal idea of their consecration. The command to Aaron is, that the priests, when they go into the tabernacle, are not to drink wine nor strong drink, in order that they may be able to distinguish between holy and unholy, and to teach the children of Israel (Lev_10:9); for wine is a mocker (Pro_20:1) Wine, says Isaiah, with reference to the priesthood of his day (Isa_28:7), has drowned all priestly consecration. The consequences of intoxication show themselves not only in a man like Nabal (1Sa_25:36), but also in the case of a pious man, like Lot.
That death is the wages of sin, the Old Testament teaches on every page. The priests are to abstain from wine, lest they die. Hence, also, they are not to touch a corpse, for it has the nature of sin and uncleanness (Lev_21:1), and the priests are to be holy. But although the special official priesthood was given by law to the tribe of Levi, holiness and consecration of life were not limited to that tribe: every one, no matter what his tribe, can consecrate himself to God, and without the aid of office, visibly realize the general priesthood in his own person. It is the peculiarity of the law, that it expresses every internal religions emotion by means of a visible act. It obliges the inward life to allow itself to be visibly recognized. All Israel was to be holy; but when an Israelite, in a condition of special spiritual exaltation, rising above the common connection between God and the people, as mediated by the priests, vowed himself to God, this act also was made the subject of ordinances, by which the Nazir, as he who thus vowed was called, was distinguished from other men, and held to special obligations. Hence, an Israelite can vow himself to God for a time, and is accordingly during that time holy to God in an especial sense (Num_6:8). Without holding any priestly office, he enters into a free and sacred service before God. Hence, during the whole time of his vow, he is forbidden to touch wine or strong drink, as if he were constantly officiating in the tabernacle, although the priests, when not actually engaged in service, were under no restraint. The priests, generally forbidden to touch a corpse, are yet allowed to do so in the case of a blood relative (Lev_21:1 ff); but the Nazir, who is to look upon himself as if he were ever in the sanctuary, from which every impurity is excluded, is not to know any exception. He may not touch, the dead body of even father or mother. Yea, he is himself, as it were, a temple or altar of God, as appears from the personal mark by which he is distinguished. The priest comes only to the altar; and is forbidden to wear the signs of the idolaters on his hair and beard (Lev_21:5), and is moreover distinguished by his clothing. The Nazir is in the congregation, his clothing is not different from that of others; but he is himself an altar; and therefore, as over an altar, so over his body, and over the head of that body, no iron may be lifted up. “When thou makest an altar of stone,” says Moses, “thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy iron1 upon it, thou hast desecrated it” (Exo_20:25). Accordingly, Joshua built an altar of stones “over which no man had lifted up any iron” (Jos_8:31). The reason for this prohibition is grounded, not in the nature of stone, but in the symbolical significance of iron. Iron, as the Mishnah observes (Middoth, iii. 4), must not even touch the altar; for iron is used to shorten life, but the altar to lengthen it (comp. my treatise Schamir, pp. 57, 58). It is well known that other ancient nations regarded iron in the same way. The Egyptians called it “Typhon’s Bones” (Plutarch, de Osirid. cap. lxii). Iron, according to the oracle (Pausan. iii. 3, 4), is the image of evil, because it is used in battle.2When, therefore, it was enjoined upon the Nazir to let no knife come upon his head during the time of his vow, the ground of the injunction was none other than this: that since the Nazir, like the altar, is holy and consecrate to God, iron, the instrument of death and terror, must not touch him.3
The Nazir is a walking altar of God; and his flowing hair is the visible token of his consecration, reminding both himself and the people of the sacred vows he has assumed. It is the proper mark of the Nazir, as the linen garment is that of the Levite. By it he is known, and from it probably comes his name. It may be assumed that the signification “to devote one’s self, to abstain from,” of the verb נָזַר, belongs to it only in consequence of the distinction attached to the נָזִיר. It seems to me that Nazir is equivalent to καρηκομόων, long-haired, Cincinnatus, curly-haired, or Harfagr (Haralld hinn Harfagri). For it has been justly remarked that in Numbers 6 the term Nazir is already accepted as a familiar expression. It may be compared with the Latin cirrus, curl, lock, or tuft of hair (cf. cœsaries = cœraries); for comparative philology shows that in most verbs beginning with נ, this letter is a specific Hebrew prefix to the root, so that נָטַר, to guard, to keep, may be compared with τηρέω; נָטַל, to bear, with τλάω; נחָשׁ, brass, with œs, נָחָשׁ serpent, with the onomatopoetic zischen, to hiss; נִחָם with gemere;נזַל with salire, etc. The word נֵזֶר would then get its signification diadem, ornament (cf. זִרִ, in the same sense), just as the Greek κομμός, derived from κόμη, κομεώ, comes to signify adornment. To trace the original etymological identity of cirrus, cicinnus, and the Sanskrit kikura, with the Hebrew nazir, or to inquire whether the terms ξύρομαι, to shave one’s self, and κείρειν, to cut the hair, are connected with the same root, would be out of place here. Precisely those terms which designate objects of primitive interest to man, are most deeply imbedded in the general philological treasures of all nations. But not to pursue these speculations any farther, it must already appear probable, that the use of nazir in Lev_25:5, where it is applied to the untrimmed vine of the sabbatic year, is to be explained by reference not to the Nazaritic custom of human beings, vowing and consecrating themselves to God, but to the original meaning of the root. The Sabbath-year being time belonging to God (Lev_25:4), no knife was applied during its course to the vine, which from that circumstance was named nazir. This would have been an unsuitable designation, if it had been derived from the vows assumed by the human Nazir; for such subjective activity could not be ascribed to the vine. It was the objective appearance of the Nazir, who, whether man or vine, was holy, and therefore had not been touched by the knife, which gave rise to the name. The name suggests the unshaven condition, the long hair, of the Nazarite, not primarily his consecration, although the sacred character of the person, through the law, gave sanctity to the name and set it apart from common uses, just as the rite of circumcision was indebted for its name (מוּלָח), not to the sacramental character of the rite, but to the mere act of cutting (מוּל, σμίλη), and then reflected its own sanctity upon the name. Long hair, although without any reference to the Nazaritic institute it may be called נֵזֶר (cf. Jer_7:29), was the proper mark of the Nazir, because regularly set apart for this purpose by the law. To sanctify the natural life, is the very thing at which the law constantly aims. By its institutions its spiritual requisitions are rendered visible and personal. The circumcision of the foreskin is after all but the national image of circumcision of the heart, and the Nazaritic institute is the symbol of the general priesthood, in which no sin or impurity is to sully the free service of God. But the visible character in which each of these conceptions appeared, was more than a subjective, mutable image: it was a definite and unchangeable law. It was, to a certain extent, a sacrament. It is instructive to see how the relation of spirit and law affects Biblical language and conceptions. The wearing of long hair, a purely natural act, is first, by spiritual ideas, raised into an expression of the general priesthood, in which man is a living altar; but when long hair has become characteristic of the sacred Nazir, whose duty it is to keep far from impurity, a new verb is derived from his name, with, the sole spiritual signification of “withholding one’s self from what is unclean.” The same process may be noted in connection with circumcision. Originally elevated into a sacrament by the intervention of spiritual ideas, incorporated into the law, it affords occasion for the transfer of its name to the spiritual conceptions of the circumcision of tongue and heart. But especially remarkable is the apprehension of the relation between spirit and law in the history of Samson.
II. Why was it necessary for the hero who should begin to deliver Israel, to be a Nazir? Why was the same election and education not necessary in the cases of the other great judges, as, for instance, Gideon and Jephthah? Were then those heroes not spiritual Nazarites, who gave their lives to the service of God? May we not understand the opening words of Deborah’s Song as indicating their spiritual consecration to Jehovah: “That in Israel waved the hair, in the people’s self-devotion” (see on Jdg_5:2)? No doubt; and for that very reason Samson is distinguished from them. For those men arose in times when the tribes of Israel them selves repented and turned their hearts to God. In Samson’s day, the situation was different. Dan and Judah were oppressed, but not repentant. An uprising from within through faith, is not to be expected. It is brought about, therefore, as it were from without, by means of the law. The power of the objective, spiritual law manifests itself. It becomes an organ of deliverance, when the subjective source of freedom no longer flows. The angel would have found no Gideon. A prophetess like Deborah, there was not. But the law abides: it is independent of the current popular spirit. It is thus the last sure medium through which the help of God can come to Israel. This significance of the law, and its objective power, is very instructively set forth before the people in the person of Samson. It is this also which, from Samson onward, becomes the ruling force in the vocation and appointment of deliverers, until the kingship is established, which by the objective rite of priestly anointing, changes David the shepherd-boy into David the victorious ruler. And this instruction concerning the law as a whole, is imparted through the medium of the special law concerning the Nazir, because it is here that the relation to be pointed out comes most clearly to view. For precisely the Nazariteship is, according to the Biblical law, the out-flow of unrequired, voluntary consecration to God on the part of an individual. No doubt, to a certain extent, the earlier heroes, though not Nazarites in form, were such self-devoted men. But heroes such as they do not arise in times when the absence of penitence and faith dulls the prophets and Nazarites (cf. Amo_2:12). Hence, the history of Samson teaches that Israel would have had nothing to hope for from the Nazariteship, if it had had no other than subjective validity. When faith is wanting among the people, no man becomes a Nazir; but the objective law can make of the Nazir, a man. In Samson’s case, the Nazariteship makes the hero, the long hair characterizes his strength, the renunciations of the mother consecrate the child. Samson, a Nazarite from his birth and without his own will, becomes what he is only as such, and continues to be a hero only so long as he continues to be a Nazarite. The Nazariteship is first, everything else second, in him. Its power over him is so objective, that it already operates on him before he is born, before anything like free consciousness can be thought of. The command addresses not him whom it concerns, but his mother, and she, during her pregnancy; becomes a female Nazir, in order that her son may be able to become a hero. It is this that properly distinguishes Samson from the other heroes; and its occasion appears in the fact that the narrator could not, as at other times, introduce his story by stating that the tribes had persistently “cried unto God.”
III. The Mishnah (Nazir, i. 2) already distinguishes between a perpetual Nazarite and a Samson-Nazarite. And in fact, the Nazariteship of Samson is unique, has never repeated itself, and never can repeat itself; for it is conditioned by the history of his age. Samuel also is consecrated by his mother’s vow that he shall belong to God, and that no razor shall come upon his head; but there is nothing to show that the mother observed the Nazaritic rules in her own person, nor is anything said about any virtue in long hair in connection with Samuel. Hannah was wholly self-moved in the making of her vow. The case of John the Baptist likewise stands entirely by itself. Here, the birth of the child is indeed announced by an angel, but his character as a Nazarite is expressed in language altogether peculiar: “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.” John will be great before God, and because of that greatness will drink no wine. Nothing is said about long hair, and the origin of John’s vow is placed, not in the act of another, but in the strength with which God had endowed himself. The Mishnah puts it as a possible case that a person should vow to be a Nazarite like Samson; that is, the vow is hypothetically so limited that, while it requires him who makes it to wear his hair long, he is not required to bring sacrifices for defilement. Such a vow was named after Samson, because a part of his life was imitated by it. But properly speaking, a vow to be like Samson, is impossible For Samson’s vow began not with himself, but with his mother. According to the law in the 6th chapter of Numbers, an Israelite could take a vow upon himself for a longer or, like the four friends of James (Act_21:23), for a shorter period. When the time was expired, he shaved himself, and brought an offering. But no one could vow to be like Samson. It was indeed within the power of a mother to promise to bring up her child like Samson, but even then she had no right to expect the same results as in the case of Samson. It is precisely the impotence of human subjectivity that is demonstrated by Samson’s history. It cannot be the wish of all mothers to have Samson-children, when they suffer the hair of their offspring to grow. The angel’s announcement, through which the spirit in the law begins to operate even in the maternal womb, is the original source of strength. The Spirit of God operates on mother and son, through the Nazariteship as its organ. The power of the Nazir, the holy influence of the law, opens the man himself; the outflow of divine consecration into the life of the consecrated cannot take place without the Spirit of God. The theological doctrine of the preparatory history of Samson, is just this: that while the law in its immutable objectivity is placed over against the subjective forces of prophecy and heroic inspiration, yet it can never of itself, but only by virtue of the Spirit of God pervading and quickening it, become the organ of deliverance.
The Nazaritic institute is the image of the general priesthood, of the fact that outside of the tribe of Levi, it is possible for man to belong wholly to God. The visible acts which it prescribes, represent, as in a figure, the purity and sinlessness of the heart consecrated to God. In the case of Samson, this Nazariteship begins from his mother’s womb. Were it in the power of a son born of human parents, to be sinless through the law, Samson the Nazarite ought to have been sinless. But only Christ is the true Nazarite in spirit, whose life realizes the purity of the idea, and whose free love, rooted in God, continues among men from the womb until death. Jacob, the dying patriarch, announced a blessing “on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of the Nazir of his brethren” (Gen_49:26); and there is no reason to doubt that the primitive Christian consciousness interpreted the expression “Nazir of his brethren” not of Joseph, but found in the “and” a link connecting the blessing of Joseph with the person of Him who was a Nazir of the brethren of Joseph. It saw in the passage a prophecy of the Messiah, who though not descended from Levi, was yet the true holy and consecrated high-priest. Hence, the opinion that in the language of the evangelist Matthew (Jdg_2:23), “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Ναζωραῖος,” reference is made to the נְזיר אֶחָיו, the “Nazir of his brethren,” is not to be hastily set aside. Remarkable, at all events, is it that the ancient Jewish interpretation, when Jacob after the blessing on Dan (Gen_49:17) adds the words: “I wait for thy salvation, Jehovah!” conceives him to glance from the nearer but transient deliverance by Samson, to the more distant but eternal redemption of Messiah (Beresch. Rabba, p. 86 c; cf. the Targums on the passage); and that, as already mentioned, the mother of Samson, in 1Ch_4:3, is named Hazelelponi or Zelelponi, i. e., “the shadow falls on me,” which may be compared with the words of the angel to the mother of Jesus: “the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.”
Jdg_13:5. And let no razor come upon his head. Here, and in the history of Samuel, the razor is called מוֹרָה, whereas in Num_6:4תַּעַר is used. Both terms come from the same stem עָרָה, nudare, to uncover, as it were novare, to renew, whence also novacula, sharp knife, razor. There appears to be less ground for comparison with the Greek μάῤ̓δον, Latin marra, the signification “spade” being too far removed. On the other hand, a certain relationship of עָרָה with the Greek ξυρόν, Sanskrit khschura, shears, may not be altogether denied.
He shall begin. For the Philistines oppressed Israel forty years, and Samson judged his people only twenty. Samson began to restore victory to Israel, he did not make it full and final. The angel of God who calls the hero out of the womb of his mother, knows that he will not finish that for which God nevertheless gave him strength. He knows it, and therefore does not speak as he did to Gideon: “Thou shalt deliver Israel” (Jdg_6:14).
Jdg_13:6-7. And the woman came and told her husband. Before telling him what the angel had said, she excuses herself for having obtained no particular information about the bearer of the announcement. She should have asked him whence he was, but dared not; for he was a “man of God,” with the look of an “angel of God.” The angel appeared in human form; but there was an imposing splendor about him, which terrified the woman. Such, probably, had also been the case in Gideon’s experience. In her narrative she supplies what we do not find in Jdg_13:5, that the child’s character, as a Nazir of God, is to last from the womb until “the day of his death.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The grace of God shows itself constantly more wondrously. It was to be made ever clearer in Israel that all salvation comes from God, and that without God there is no peace. With God all things are possible. He can raise up children for himself out of stones. His works are independent of human presuppositions and conditions. He has no need of antecedent historical conditions in order to raise up men. When in times of impenitence even vessels are wanting, He creates the vessels He needs.
How differently God proceeds in the election of grace from the methods human thought would conceive, is shown by the history of all previous Judges. The deliverer arises there where the natural understanding would never have looked for him. But Samson God raises up in a manner in which no man ever conjectured the growth of a hero to take place. The other Judges He selected as men: Samson He brought up to be a hero.
The earlier Judges were to a certain extent prepared for their work even before their election. Ehud had the abilities of a Benjaminite, Deborah was a prophetess, Gideon a strong man, Jephthah a successful military leader. When the Spirit of God came upon them, they became Deliverers and Judges. In Samson, God made it known that his grace is able to save Israel even when such persons are not to be found. Before birth, He consecrates the child, through his Spirit, to be a Nazarite. Hence grows a hero.
Earlier Judges were able, like Ehud, to perform single-handed exploits; but they achieved deliverance only in connection with the people. They were all military leaders of Israel, and had to stand at the head of pious hosts. In Samson it is seen that this also is not indispensable. Only individuals among the people were penitent; the tribes, as such, were unbelieving. Therefore the Spirit raised up a single man to be Judge: he alone, without army and without people, fought and delivered.
For this reason, the ancient, deeply thinking church regarded Samson especially as a type of the history of Christ. His birth was similar to that of Jesus. Like the eternal Word who became flesh, he was typically born and consecrated of the Spirit. In Christ, also, it is his sinlessness that presupposes his office as Saviour. The birth of Christ determines his resurrection. He must be born from heaven in order to return to heaven. No one can ascend into heaven but He who came down from heaven.
There was also no penitence in Israel when Christ was born. A few sought the promised Messiah in the prophets. Christ did not come to put himself at the head of a host of believers; but alone, as He was, so He stood among the people. He performs his entire work alone. He needs no legions of angels. His work is unique; and He, the worker, is a solitary hero.
Every believing heart treads in the footsteps of Christ. Fellowship is good in Christian work, but not essential. A Christian can live alone, if he be with Christ.
Starke: God cares for his people when they are in misery, and often thinks of their redemption before they think of it themselves.—The same: God connects his grace and gifts with mean things, in order to make men know that everything is to be ascribed to the grace of God, and not to the merits of men.
[Bp. Hall: If Manoah’s wife had not been barren, the angel had not been sent to her. Afflictions have this advantage, that they occasion God to show that mercy to us, whereof the prosperous are incapable. It would not beseem a mother to be so indulgent to a healthful child as to a sick.—The same: Nature pleads for liberty, religion for restraint. Not that there is more uncleanness in the grape than in the fountain, but that wine finds more uncleanness in us than water, and that the high feed is not so fit for devotion as abstinence.—Wordsworth: Samson is a type of Christ: and in all those things where Samson fails, there Christ excels. Samson began to deliver Israel, but did not effect their deliverance (see Jdg_13:1; Jdg_15:20). He declined from his good beginnings; and fell away first into sin, and then into the hands of the enemy. But Christ not only began to deliver Israel, but was able to say on the cross, “It is finished.”—Tr.].
Footnotes:
[1][The English version renders, “tool.” The word is הֶרֶב, in the sense of “chisel.” The interpretation “iron” is justified by Jos_8:31, where, with evident reference to Exo_20:25, בַּרְזֶל is substituted for הֶרֶב.—Tr.].
[2]The following is said to have been uttered by Apollonius of Tyana: “Let the iron spare the hair of a wise man. For it is not right that it should touch a place where lie the sources of all the senses, whence all sacred sounds and voices issue, and prayers proceed, and the word of wisdom interprets.”—Philostrat., Vit. Apollon., viii. 6.
[3]Hence, we cannot agree with the explanations cited and proposed in Oehler’s article on the Nasiraat, in Herzog’s Encyklopddie (x. 208). A poem by Max Letteris, on the “Locks of the Nazarite,” in Jolowicz Blüthenkranz, p. 239, has entirely missed the idea of the Nazaritic institution.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 15, 17, 24 AN ANGEL APPEARS TO MANOAH'S WIFE. (Jdg 13:2-10)
AN ANGEL APPEARS TO MANOAH'S WIFE. (Jdg 13:2-10)
Zorah--a Danite town (Jos 15:33) lying on the common boundary of Judah and Dan, so that it was near the Philistine border.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 SAMSON’S BIRTH, Jdg_13:2-25.
SAMSON’S BIRTH, Jdg_13:2-25.
2. Zorah — Identified by Dr. Robinson with the modern Surah, which is situated on a high conical hill about thirteen miles west of Jerusalem, and overlooking the Wady Surar. It was first assigned to Judah, (Jos_15:33,) but afterwards to Dan. Jos_19:41.
Read full note →
Family of the Danites — This expression is used interchangeably with tribe of the Danites. Compare Jdg_18:1-2; Jdg_18:11; Jdg_18:30.
Manoah — “A person of such great virtue,” says Josephus, “that he had few men his equals, and, without dispute, the principal person of his country. He had a wife celebrated for her beauty, and excelling her contemporaries.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 2. Zorah] Jdg_13:25, Jdg_16:31, Jdg_18:2; Jdg_18:8; Jdg_18:11, usually mentioned…
2. Zorah] Jdg_13:25, Jdg_16:31, Jdg_18:2; Jdg_18:8; Jdg_18:11, usually mentioned with Eshtaol; in Jos_19:41 counted as Danite, in ib. Jos_15:33 as belonging to Judah, which later on absorbed the Danite settlements in the south; re-inhabited after the exile, Neh_11:29. Zorah was an ancient Canaanite town, and is referred to in the Amarna Letters (173, 21) along with Aijalon. The name is preserved in the modern Ṣar‘a, 15 m. west of Jerusalem. The situation of the town just opposite Beth-shemesh (prob. = Mt Ḥeres Jdg_1:35) exposed it to Philistine influences.
of the family of the Danites … Manoah] The Danites were a small tribe, hence ‘family’ is used here and in Jdg_18:2; Jdg_18:11; Jdg_18:19, though ‘tribe’ also occurs in Jdg_18:1; Jdg_18:19. Originally they attempted to settle in the southern lowland, but the Amorites forced them into the neighbouring hill country (Jdg_1:34 f.), a district which afterwards passed into the possession of Judah. From their southern settlements the Danites, probably owing to Canaanite or Philistine pressure, migrated to the north, and established themselves at Laish or Leshem-Dan, near the sources of the Jordan (Jdg_18:2; Jdg_18:11 ff., Jdg_18:27 ff.; Jos_19:47). The account of this migration, though given at the end of Judges, probably belongs to the period of ch. 1. The Danites were already settled in their northern home at the time of Deborah (Jdg_5:17). But ch. 18 does not say that the entire tribe migrated; some families remained behind in the south, as the present narrative implies. Manoaḥ must have been closely connected with the Manaḥathites of Zorah, a family which traced its origin to the Calebite clans (1Ch_2:52-54), and had affinities both with the Horites of Seir (Gen_36:23 P) and with Judah (1Ch_4:1). This Horite family lived in Zorah and was absorbed into the mixed tribe of Dan: such seems to be the conclusion suggested by the genealogies. Manoaḥ thus becomes, the eponymous ancestor of the family which bore his name, and in popular tradition Samson was known as his ‘son,’ just as Jephthah is called the ‘son’ of Gilead in Jdg_11:1.
Read full note →
was barren, and bare not] Cf. Sarah Gen_11:30, Hannah 1Sa_1:2, Elisabeth St Luk_1:7. The child in such cases was a special gift of God, and marked out for a special career.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24 (2) There was a certain man. . . .—The…
(2) There was a certain man. . . .—The narrative of the birth of Samuel (1Sa_1:1) is similarly introduced.
Zoran.—The name means “place of hornets.” In Jos_15:33 it is mentioned with Eshtaol among the towns north-east of the Shephelah, and it belonged to Dan (Jos_19:41). Robinson identifies it with Surah, fourteen miles from Jerusalem, seven miles south of Yalo, west of Kirjath-jearim. It is mentioned again in 1Ch_11:10; Neh_11:29. Its conical hill and abundant fountain made it a strong and convenient place.
Read full note →
Of the family of the Danites.—There seems to be no clear distinction between “family” (mispachath) and “tribe” (shebet), since they are used interchangeably in Jdg_18:1-2; Jdg_18:11; Jdg_18:30. The same word is used of the house of Levi (Zec_12:13). It has, however, this appropriateness, as applied to Dan, that the tribe seems to have consisted of the single family of Shuham (Num_26:42).
Manoah.—The name (“rest”) perhaps expressed the yearning of the Israelites in these troubled days.
His wife was barren.—We find the same circumstance mentioned of Sarah (Gen_16:1), Rebekah (Gen_25:21), Hannah (1Sa_1:2) Elizabeth (Luk_1:7). Many of the phrases here used occur in Luk_1:7; Luk_1:11; Luk_1:15; Luk_1:31; Luk_2:23. The Talmud (Babha Bathra, 91) says that the name of Samson’s mother was Hazelelponi, or Zelelponi (for which they refer to 1Ch_4:3), and that she was of the tribe of Judah. Zelelponi means “the shadow falls on me.”
And bare not.—The pleonastic addition is common in the forms of ancient literature. “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Gen_11:30). “I am a widow woman, and my husband is dead.” It often takes the form of both a positive and negative statement, as “Thou shalt live, and not die.” “It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves,” &c.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Zorah. Enumerated among the cities in the tribe of…
Zorah. Enumerated among the cities in the tribe of Dan in Jos_19:41, but ascribed to Judah, ibid. Jos_15:33 (there transliterated Zoreah) and in 2Ch_11:10. Probably the boundary passed through the city,as that of Judah and Benjamin did through Jerusalem. In Neh_11:29 it is transliterated Zareah, and also ascribed to Judah. It is almost always coupled with Eshtaol, as in ver. 25 of this chapter. It was situated in the Shephelah, or plain country, and was fortified by Rehoboam. (2Ch_11:10) It is supposed to be represented by the modern Surah, at the entrance of the Wady Ghurab. The family of the Danites. It appears from Num_26:42, 43 that there was only one family in the tribe of Dan, so that in this case tribe and family were coextensive.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR. Vers. 2-5. A natural desire and its gracious fulfilment.
Read full note →
In the East it is a reproach to be childless, and the greatest anxiety is displayed by married people to have a son. In ancient times the possibility of becoming the mother of the promised Messiah was a hope which greatly influenced this, but it had its root in the natural longing to continue one"s name and influence after death. This "will to live," which is so strong in the natural man, God sanctified by religious sanctions. It is ever a healthful and lawful desire when the "chief end" of man is respected. "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
The natural life of man or woman is incomplete apart from the married state, and children are the blessing and crown of marriage. But they may also he its curse. It is only as God shapes their destiny and moulds their character, only as he "builds the house," that happiness and prosperity can be insured. Improvident marriages and parental neglect have been amongst the greatest causes of misery and vice in all ages. As in later ages we have learnt that there is no virtue in being a mother, so we have discovered that the single life is not the only possible one for the saint.
I GOD DELIGHTS IN GRATIFYING OUR LEGITIMATE NATURAL DESIRES. It is but fitting that he who made us as we are constituted should supply, or place within our reach, that which shall satisfy our natural cravings. To do otherwise would be a refined and terrible cruelty. But our sin has forfeited for us this claim upon his providence. It would be perfectly lawful for him to withdraw natural supplies, and leave a rebellious world to perish, because of a broken covenant. But it has been far otherwise. The providence of God has been extolled by the heathen as by the Christian, by the sinner and the saint. He makes his sun to rise and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. Save his grace, there is no more pathetic and wonderful thing in the doings of God than this persistent and impartial providence. And in visitations like this to Manoah"s wife we have glimpses of the feeling which inspires it. A real pleasure is felt by our Father in helping and gratifying his children. The mother has no more pleasure in giving suck to her infant than God has in making it possible for her to do so. Care and interest like this prepare us for the grander exhibitions of his grace in the gift of his only begotten Son. It could only be sustained in the breast of one who "so loved the world." A part of this Divine love is due, doubtless, to the possibility of some of those he fosters becoming his spiritual children and heirs of his kingdom.
II HE DOES IT IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO IMPRESS UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE BLESSING THE SACREDNESS OF THE GODGIVEN LIFE, AND THE TRUE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD. The child promised is to be devoted to God from his birth. His whole life is to be a Divine service. A special commission is to be given him for the deliverance of God"s people. To this end a life of self-denial a Nazarite life is to be his. Thin conception of Samson"s future is typical and representative. Every first-born in Israel was so regarded. And every child should be so regarded, and taught so to regard himself or herself. There is nothing so beautiful under the sun as a life wholly and from beginning to end devoted to God. And this, though it may seem a hard and difficult thing to realise, is the shortest and truest way to happiness. The mother of such a child every mother is therefore called upon to sanctify herself, that her offspring shall receive from her no evil tendencies or desires. Hereditary influence is everywhere recognised throughout Scripture.
III THE OFFSPRING THUS GRANTED IS MADE THE INSTRUMENT OF BLESSING AND DELIVERANCE TO HIS PEOPLE. There are always considerations for and against granting a boon outside and independently of the ordinary course of nature. Consecration of the gift thus bestowed is the surest way of avoiding injustice to others, and justifying our own super-abounding good. What a thought this for every mother to ponder! In lesser proportion and degree hers may be the wonder and forethought of Mary, the mother of our Lord, when "she hid these things in her heart. M.
Vers. 2-5. God"s use of unlikely means for gracious ends.
The crisis was grave, relief being, humanly speaking, impossible. The family chosen for the experiment an ordinary one, of no social standing. The mother of the promised child barren. The sustenance enjoined of the most meagre description, not likely to produce strength or furnish artificial stimulus. No inward holiness is shown by Samson.
I IT SHOWS A PURPOSE OF ENGAGING THE SINNER, EITHER PERSONALLY OR REPRESENTATIVELY, IN THE TASK OF HIS OWN SALVATION. The humblest transgressor cannot be saved without his own self-surrender and willing co-operation.
II THE HIGHER SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES, FAITH, HOPE, etc., ARE EVOKED IN THOSE WHO ARE THUS SAVED. The human agent is thus put in his right place. He secures the sympathies of his fellow-countrymen. Their hopes rise or fall as he prospers or is hindered in his task. The blessing of God must therefore be invoked, and the promise of God implicitly believed.
III ALL THE GIFTS OF OUR NATURE ARE SHOWN TO BE DIVINE IN THEIR ORIGIN, AND THEIR CONSECRATION IS ENCOURAGED.
IV THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD IS THUS VINDICATED AS HIS OWN, AND HE HIMSELF DECLARED THE ONLY SAVIOUR. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v24
Jdg_13:24-25
Samson.
Read full note →
Samson
The history of Samson is surprising even in an extraordinary age. In several particulars he was the most distinguished of the Hebrew judges. And though never at the head of an army, nor on a throne, nor prime minister to any earthly potentate, it were difficult, perhaps impossible, to name another Hebrew that loved his country with more fervid devotion, or served it with a more hearty good will, or who was a greater terror to its enemies. I know not that there is any biography so completely characteristic or more tragical than his. It is full of stirring incidents and most marvellous achievements. He seems to us like a volcano, continually struggling for an eruption. In him we have all the elements of an epic: love, adventure, heroism, tragedy. Nor am I aware that any Bible character has lent to modern literature a greater amount of metaphor and comparison than the story of Samson. The Samson Agonistes of Milton has been pronounced by the highest authority to be one of the noblest dramas in the English language. It reminds us of the mystic touches and shadowy grandeur of Rembrandt, while Rembrandt himself and Rubens, Guido, David, and Martin are indebted to this heroic judge for several of their immortal pieces. I am aware that some look upon Samson merely as a strong man. They do not consider that the moving of the Spirit of Jehovah gave extraordinary strength to Samson for special purposes. His peculiarities are not remarkable, because of anything that we perceive foreign to fallen humanity in the kind or composition of his passions and besetting sins, but in the fierceness and greatness of their strength. Ordinary men now have the same besetting sins--passions of the same character, but they are diminutive in comparison with him, and are without his supernatural strength. It must be confessed in the outset that Samsons spiritual history is very skeleton-like. We have only a few time-worn fragments out of which to construct his inner man. Now and then, and sometimes after long and dreary intervals, and from out of heavy clouds and thick darkness, we catch a few rays of hope, and rejoice in some signs of a reviving conscience and of the presence of Gods Spirit. His character is indeed dark and almost inexplicable. By none of the judges of Israel did God work so many miracles, and yet by none were so many faults committed. As an old writer has said, he must be looked upon as rather a rough believer. I like not to dwell on Samson as a type of Christ. We must at least guard against removing him so far from us by reason of his uniqueness of character as to forget that he was a man of like passions with ourselves. We must carefully discriminate in his life between what God moved him to do and what his sinful passions moved him to. The Lord raised up this heroic Israelite for us. He threw into him a miraculous composition of strength and energy of passion, and called them forth in such a way as to make him our teacher. And besides being a hero, he was a believer. God raised him up for our learning, and made him, as it were, a mirror or molten looking-glass, in which we may see some of our own leading features truthfully portrayed, only on an enlarged scale. (W. A. Scott, D. D.)
The place of Samson in Jewish history
1. Two things stand out in the narrative of Samsons career, as compared with the history of at least the majority of the other judges.
(1) The other judges fight Gods battles with the people at their backs. They simply give aid and point to a sense of rising strength, of impatience of subjection, of reviving national pride and religious zeal in the Hebrew people. Samson, on the contrary, stands utterly alone, fights his battle single-handed, is supported by no enthusiasm for the national cause, and not even by common loyalty on the part of his own comrades.
(2) The other judges are chosen to their office as mature men, but Samson is set apart to his career as an unborn child. From his very infancy the sense of his vocation takes possession of him; as child and boy and youth it is making and moulding him, and preparing him for what he is to be. The explanation of these two characteristic features of his history, which distinguish it from that of the other judges, lies in this, that Samsons lot in life fell upon a period of utter national demoralisation. Israel had elapsed into subjection to the despised, uncircumcised Philistines. All national spirit was dying out, and the prestige of Jehovah was giving way before the prestige of Dagon. Now the only hope for the redemption of a society that has fallen into a condition of such lassitude, mental and moral, lies in the creation of a fresh and powerful personality.
2. How, humanly speaking, was Samson prepared for his work?
(1) To begin with, God made a cradle and a home for him. Samsons mother was a woman with a great soul and a large heart, to whom God was a reality; a woman who could not indeed fight Gods battles and deliver Gods people, but who lived with the upper storeys of her being in the unseen, and was possessed with a tremendous longing that there should be deliverance for Israel, that something heroic should appear in history, and that God should vindicate His might and grandeur above the heathen gods. Samson was born to a mother that longed for a boy, not that he might rise to comfort and ease, but that he might be lofty and heroic, and fight and, if need be, die for God and Gods kingdom. To her son she transmits her hope, faith, and enthusiasm.
(2) From a little child Samson felt something mysterious stirring in his soul, ay, and in his physical nature. Samson needed extraordinary gifts for extraordinary work. He had, single-handed, by his own solitary prowess, to cow the Philistines and reanimate the courage of the Hebrews.
Two things were needful for him:
(1) extraordinary strength,
(2) inextinguishable joyousness.
To hold his own amid the abject depression of the people round about him it was essential that he should be possessed of exuberant mirth and jollity. It is the men that do the most serious and earnest work that can play and romp and laugh with their children. That is not the noisy laughter of the fool.
(3) Once again; it may be that asceticism is demanded for our age, just as Nazaritism was for Samsons. But that, remember, is the bad remedy of a still worse evil. Jesus Christ was no ascetic, else His enemies would not have published, as the likeliest scandal about Him, that He was a wine-bibber. (Professor W. G. Elmslie.)
Samson: inferior influences over large minds
1. The Book of Judges is full of expressions of singular beauty. The springs of human action are bared and revealed to view with wonderful power.
2. Samson was inspired and sent forth with a heavenly mission. Yet second motive was the frequent spring of his actions.
3. There is a vigour, width, and absence of detail or accurate plan about his proceedings which stamp him still more as a man of genius and bold conception.
4. But there is a further remarkable feature in Samsons case. He became the slave of his wife. The same mind around which a mother wound the soft coils of maternal and home influences a wife bound round with the adamantine chains of female plot and management.
5. But we have to account for this and see its force.
(1) In ordinary terms Samson was a man of genius. Genius is a more direct gift from God than the ordinary power of man. It is a species of inspiration. It sees the means of deliverance from an evil without having to wade through the tortuous windings of the labyrinth of hard-worked, plans and schemes.
(2) The man of genius is left with the simplicity of a child from never having commenced his hard task in the school of experience and difficulty. He leans with the trust of infancy on the natural stays and supports of life. Men of genius will be subject to the tyranny as well as consolations of inferior influences; and will often become the slaves and victims of female narrowness and punctilio. Their dependence on natural affections is accounted for by the same cause which accounts for their sometimes unaccountably sinking under the extravagant exercise of that influence. Not having had the need to manage others by elaborate plans, they are duped by overmanagement, and not having been called on to work out schemes, they fall the ready and easy victims to those devised by others.
6. We are often startled by inconsistencies in Samsons history. They may be accounted for by the same reason--genius. The man of genius is not therefore of necessity a man of personal holiness. The glass tube may be the medium of streams of water, yet not one drop will imbue the substance forming the channel that conveys the fertilising drops from one spot to another. The eternal truth which a man speaks, the holiness he may bear witness to, the warnings he may proclaim, may all be declared with the utmost efficiency, and yet not influence him who is the medium. (E. Monro, M. A.)
The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times.
Man under the influence of the Divine Spirit
Our knowledge of that mysterious power called the Spirit has been assisted by the well-known comparison of it with the wind, whose effects we may see, but whose rise and courses we cannot trace. The wind bloweth where it listeth, etc. There will, therefore, be in human life occurrences that we can only refer to this source, which will defy scientific rules and be beyond calculation. But though we may not search out the way of the Spirit, we may inquire when His motions are most generally first felt. Is there any limit of age at which His visits begin or end? Are we to wait till riper years, when knowledge is matured and the passions subdued to reason, before we can entertain them, or may we expect this power of God to approach us early, and move us almost as soon as the age of consciousness begins? So much more receptive is the earlier part of a mans life that I have heard experienced preachers allege that no conversions take place after twenty-five; but while objecting to such a limit, or indeed any limit, I would maintain that in the young rather than in the old there is the best hope of feeling this power and becoming obedient to it. We may take Samsons life as evidence of what a man can dare and do under the influence of the Spirit. His strength was not his own, it was hung in his hair, in the seven mysterious locks in his head, which would be to him of sacramental character, outward signs of an invisible gift. The Spirit really in him accomplished his feats. When the lion roared against him, it was the Spirit of the Lord that came mightily upon him; when he finds himself among his enemies bound with two new cords, at their shout the Spirit of the Lord again came mightily upon him, and he burst the cords which became as flax which was burnt in the fire, and on this occasion he slew a thousand men. The view I take, then, of Samsons life is, that it was a witness to Gods Spirit from the beginning to the end. We should lose much of the teaching of it if we believed that such a career is altogether out of date. I do not mean, of course, that the same feats of strength will be witnessed again, but I assert that heroic feats of physical courage will be done, greater feats, too, of moral courage; and some such it will be good to put before you for imitation. In every generation they are to be found, and in our own not less than others. And for such an illustration in our own day one naturally turns to our latest modern hero, Gordon, whose life is almost as strange and eventful as that of any of the heroes of Hebrew history, and none the less inspired. He himself traced his superhuman faith and energy to this source, to God working in him, enabling him to attempt any venture in His service and cheerfully to die for Him. What a victory is scored to faith, for however eccentric his conduct may be thought, plainly he has demonstrated that there are unseen powers that sway a mans heart much more forcibly than any motives of the world. Such men almost equal Samson in the apparent inadequacy of their equipment and neglect of means. But no doubt they fortify themselves with the argument that God loves to use trivial means to effect great ends--a small pebble in Davids hand to bring down a giant, an ox-goad in Shamgars hand to work a national deliverance, a stone, rough from the mountains, to overthrow Nebuchadnezzars Colossus; and, thus encouraged, without scientific weapons, such as our theological armouries supply, they have gone forth strong in faith alone. I am led on to commend as a priceless possession the gift of an independent spirit in thinking and acting, such as the Judge in Israel always displayed among his fellow-men. For this is a servile age in which we live--albeit declared to be one of liberty and progress. Yet tending, as everything does, to democracy and equality, few men have the courage of their opinions, few that are not ready to make a surrender of their intelligence and conscience at the bidding of others. Where are the strong men who will act independently according to really patriotic or godly motives, and not put up their principles to a bidding? Who now in England is valiant for the truth? Who is upholding it before the people? Hitherto the grander part of Samsons character has occupied us, but there was a weak side when the strong man was brought low through a temptation that has cast down many strong men. The prison house, with the fallen hero, deprived of sight, shorn of his noble locks, grinding as a slave, the scoff of the enemies of God, is an obvious allegory that hardly needs an interpretation, for it is alas! a picture of every days experience when a spiritual man yields to those lusts which war within him, and enslave him if they prevail against him. (C. E. Searle, M. A.)
Samson, the Judge
It was a dark time with Israel when the boon of the future Danite judge was vouchsafed to the prayers of the long barren mother. It seems not unlikely that this may have been a part of that evil time when the ark of God itself fell into the hands of the hosts of Philistia. But there was a dawning of the coming day, and from this utter subjection God was about ere long to deliver His people. Samson was to be a first instrument in this work--he was to begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines (Jdg_13:5). To enable him to fulfil this peculiar ministry, the possession of extraordinary physical strength, accompanied by an unequalled daring, were the special gifts bestowed upon him. These began early to manifest themselves. From the first they are traced back in the sacred record to the working of that exceptional influence which rested upon him as a Nazarite unto God. In spite of actions which seem at a first glance to us Christians irreconcilable with such a spiritual relation, the occurrence of his name under the dictation of the Spirit in the catalogue of worthies who through faith subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of aliens (Heb_11:32-34), establishes beyond a doubt the fact that he was essentially a faithful man. As we look closer, we may see that passing signs of such an inward vitality break forth from time to time along the ruder outlines of his half-barbarous course. Surely there is written large upon the grave of the Nazarite judge, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. There are those in whom, in spite of remaining infirmities, there is a manifest indwelling and inworking of God the Holy Ghost--men whose lives are rich with the golden fruit of His inward life. Their life, without a word spoken, has an untold influence upon others. Be they young or old, they are Gods witnesses, Gods workmen. Far outside these is another circle. These are men of whom it is not possible to doubt that the Spirit of God has begun to move them at times. There are plain marks of a hard struggle going on within them; more or less they are conscious of it themselves. The good they would they do not, the evil they would not that they too often do. Perhaps their youth is stained with something of the waywardness, the sensuality, and disorder which marked that of the Nazarite Samson; and yet there is another Spirit striving within them. What a strife it is! with what risks, with what issues! The master temptation of one may be to yield the Nazarite locks of the purity of a Christian soul to the Philistine razor of sensual appetite; to another it may be to surrender to the fair speeches, or perhaps the taunts, of some intellectual Delilah, the faith which grew up early in his heart; his simple trust in Gods Word, in creeds, in prayers, in Christ Incarnate. Trust to me, the tempter whispers, this secret of thy strength, and I will let thee rest at peace and enjoy thy life in victorious possession of all that thy mind lusteth after. It is the old promise, broken as of old. Beyond that yielding what is there for him but mockery and chains, eyelessness and death? And yet, once again, another class is visible. There are those who, though the Nazarite life is theirs, show to the keenest searching of the longing eye no token of any moving by the blessed Spirit. In some it is as if there had never been so much as a first awakening of the Spirits life. In others there is that which we can scarcely doubt is indeed present, active, conscious resistance to the Holy One. This is the darkest, dreariest, most terrible apparition which this world can show. Here, then, are our conclusions.
1. Let us use, simply and earnestly, our present opportunities, such as daily prayer. Let us regularly practise it, in spite of any difficulties. Let us watch over ourselves in little things even more carefully than in those which seem great.
2. Let us guard against all that grieves Him.
3. Let us each one seek from Him a thorough conversion. In this thoroughness is everything--is the giving the heart up to God, is the subduing the life to His law, is all the peace of regulated passions, all the brightness of a purified imagination. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
Samson
Of Samson it may be said that he stands alone in the whole round of Scripture characters. The gift of supernatural bodily strength was bestowed on no other of Gods servants. In this respect he is interesting, as furnishing one of the many varieties of form in which God, who spoke to the fathers at sundry times and in divers manners, sought to impress upon them the great lessons of His will. Like Jonah, Samson was a sign to Israel. His life was a sort of parable, exhibiting in a strange but striking form what would have been their experience if they had been faithful. Like the nation of Israel, Samson was consecrated to God. The remarkable thing in his experience was, that while he continued faithful to his consecration he enjoyed such wonderful bodily strength, but the moment that the Nazarite law was broken, he became weak as other men. The nation was taught, symbolically, what wonderful strength would be theirs if they should be faithful to their covenant. On the other hand, the life of Samson set forth with equal clearness, what would be the consequences to Israel of their neglecting their consecration or treating lightly its marks and tokens. There was, however, a third point in which Samson was a type for Israel. Great though the judgment was that punished his neglect, he was not quite abandoned in his captivity. The hair of his head began to grow. The outward tokens of his consecration began to reappear. It was thus indicated to Israel that if, in the midst of judgment and tribulation, they should bethink them of the covenant God and seek to return to Him, He would in mercy return to them, and grant them some tokens of His former blessing. In these respects the career of Samson was peculiar. In addition to this, we are perhaps to view him, in common with the other judges, as typically setting forth the great Deliverer--the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In one respect Samson was quite specially a type of Christ. He was the first of the Hebrew worthies who deliberately gave his life for his country. Many risked their lives, but he actually, and on purpose, gave his, that his country might reap the benefit. Only here, too, we must remark an obvious difference. Both achieved salvation by dying, but in very different ways. Samson saved in spite of his death, Jesus by His death. Let us now glance at the salient points of his career. In his early training he presented a great contrast to Jephthah. In a very special sense he was a gift of God to his family and his nation; and the gift was made in a very solemn manner, and under the express condition that he was to be trained to live not for himself or for his family, but for God, to whom he was consecrated from his mothers womb. And no doubt he was brought up with the strictest regard to the rules of the Nazarites. Yet we may see, what was probably very common in these cases, that while he was rigidly attentive to the external rules, he failed to carry out, in some very essential respects, the spirit of the transaction. In heart he was not so consecrated as in outward habit. The self-pleasing spirit, against which the vow of the Nazarite was designed to bear, appeared very conspicuously in his choice of a wife. Get her for me, he said to his father, for she pleaseth me. The thought of her nation, of her connections, of her religion, was overborne by the one consideration, she pleaseth me. This does not look like one trained in all things to follow the will of God, and to keep the sensual part of his nature in strictest subjection to the spiritual. True, it is said, the thing was of the Lord ; but this does not imply that it carried His approval. It entered as an element into Gods providential plans, and was of the Lord only in the sense in which God makes the devices of men to work out the counsel of His sovereign will. Yielding at the outset of his life, and in a most vital manner, to an impulse which should have met with firm resistance, Samson became the husband of this Philistine stranger. But it was not long ere he found out his lamentable error. The shallow qualities that had taken his fancy only covered a faithless heart; she abused his confidence and proved a traitor. And after he had had experience of her treachery he did not cast her off but after a time sought her company, and it was only when he learned that she had been given to another, that he dashed into a wild scheme of revenge--catching the two hundred foxes, and setting fire to the growing corn. Whatever we may say of this proceeding, it showed unmistakably a very fearless spirit. The neighbouring tribe of Judah was horrified at the thought of the exasperation the Philistines would feel and the retribution they would inflict, and meanly sought to surrender Samson into their hands. Then came Samsons greatest achievement, well fitted to cow the Philistines if they should be thinking of reprisals--the slaughter of the thousand men with the jaw-bone of an ass. Like one inspired, Samson moved alone against a whole nation, strong in the conviction that God was with him, and that in serving Him there could be no ground for fear. But the old weakness returned again. The lust of the flesh was the unguarded avenue to Samsons heart, and despite previous warnings, the foe once more found entrance here. It is a lust that when it has gained force has a peculiar tendency to blind and fascinate, and urge a man onwards, though ruin stares him in the face. Other lusts, as covetousness or ambition, or the thirst of gold, are for the most part susceptible of control; but let a sensual lust once prevail, control by human means becomes impossible. It dashes on like a scared horse, and neither bridle, nor cries, nor efforts of any kind, can avail to arrest its course. So it proved in the case of Samson. He seemed to rush into the very jaws of destruction. How sad to see a grand nature drawn to destruction by so coarse a bait!--to see a wonderful Divine gift fallen into the hands of the enemy, only to be made their sport. Sad and lamentable fall it was! Not merely a great hero reduced to a slave, not merely one who had rejoiced in his strength afflicted by blindness, the very symbol of weakness, but the champion of his nation prostrate, the champion of his nations faith in the dust! It would seem that his affliction was useful to Samson in the highest sense. With the growth of his hair, the higher principles that came from above grew and strengthened in him too. He remembered the destiny for which he had been designed, but which appeared to have been defeated. He was humbled at the thought of the triumph of the uncircumcised, a triumph in which the honour of God was concerned, for the Philistines were praising their god and saying, Our god hath delivered our enemy into our hands. Oh, if he could yet but fulfil his destiny! It was to vindicate the God of his fathers, to save the honour of his people, and to secure to coming generations the freedom and happiness which he himself could never know, that he laid himself on the altar and died a miserable death. Thus it appears that Samson was worthy of place among those who, forgetful of self, gave themselves for the deliverance of their country. Let the young be induced to aim at steady, uniform, consistent service. It is awful work when the servants of God get entangled in the toils of the tempter. It is humbling to have but a blotted and mutilated service to render to God. Happy they who are enabled to present the offering of a pure life, a childhood succeeded by a noble youth, and youth by a consistent manhood, and manhood by a mellow and fragrant old age. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
Root, and stem, and blossom undefiled.
Samson shows us with painful clearness what havoc and misery may flow from a single form of sinful indulgence, from one root of bitterness left in the soil. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Samsons gift
I. Here was a man of surpassing physical strength. His distinction was, that in splendour of muscle and sinew none could approach him, and hence his popularity and the high position he acquired. In a later age and a more advanced state of society it would not have enthroned him thus. But these are the earliest masters, these are the primitive heroes, the men who can do great things with their limbs. Afterwards, the dominion is taken from them and given to the largest brains. Now, Samson was simply mighty in muscle and sinew. Unlike most of the other judges he does not appear to have possessed the slightest military genius or enterprise, nor any power of combining his countrymen in opposition to their enemies, or inspiring them with spirit and desire to fight for liberty. There was no generalship in him, and no gift for leading. He had but massive, magnificent limbs, and went in, straightway, for applying them to the help of Israel without caring or aiming to be more and other than heaven had qualified him to be. Is it not a grand thing always to perceive the line along which we can minister, and to be willing to pursue it, and able to keep to it, however narrow or relatively inferior it may be. Not a few would be more successful and more useful than they are were they but more bravely content to be themselves--did they but accept more unreservedly the talent committed to them, and study more simply and independently to be faithful to it. Samsons gift was not much, was not of the highest kind. It was far below that of other judges in Israel, nor did it produce any great results. Is it not possible that the reported mighty deeds of the redoubtable Nazarite of Dan had something to do in moving Hannah to set apart her boy, the boy for whom she had prayed, to be a Nazarite from his birth? Samson may have contributed to give to Israel the greater Samuel. I, too, he had stirred the woman in Mount Ephraim to say to herself--I too, would fain have a son devoted to work wonders in the cause of Gods people; let me make sacred for the purpose this new-born babe of mine! and out of that came, not a mere repetition of the same wonder-working strength, but something infinitely superior--even the wisest, noblest, and most powerful judge the land had ever seen. And so, often, they who are doing faithfully, in quite a small way, on quite a small scale, may be secretly conducive to the awakening and inspiring of grander actors than themselves. There are those who, with their rough and crude performances, with their honest yet blundering attempts, with their dim guesses and half-discoveries, do prepare the way, and furnish the clue for subsequent splendid successes on the part of some who come after them.
II. But observe what Samsons countrymen thought of his amazing physical strength, and how it impressed and affected them. They ascribed it to the Spirit of the Lord: The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. That was how they looked at it. Their mountains were to them more than mountains, they were the mountains of the Lord, and the might of their mighty men was the might of the Lord. It is worth cherishing, this old Hebrew sense of the sacredness of things; it helps to make the world a grander place, and to enhance and elevate ones enjoyment of all skills and powers displayed by men. Samsons chief value lay, perhaps, after all, in the one inspiring thought which his prowess awakened--the thought that God was there; for it is a blessed thing to be the means of starting in any sluggish, despondent, or earth-bound human breast some inspiring thought. Good work it is, and great, to be the instrument of putting another, for a while, into a better and holier frame, of leading him to be more tender, more patient, more finely sympathetic, or more believing in the Divine government of things, and in the reality of the kingdom of God. (S. A. Tipple.)
Samson
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Especially God teaches us by recording lives of men and women like ourselves, and leaving them there with their lessons staring us in the face.
I. Consider, then, how low Gods people had fallen through their unfaithfulness to Him, and their many departures, though they had only been a short time ago brought into a land flowing with milk and honey. Ammon, Midian, and Moab had all conquered them in turn. Now it was the Philistines, with a little country bordering on the sea coast, and with five chief cities, and yet they oppressed Gods people! They would not let them have any weapons, and their very ploughs had to be sharpened at a Philistine forge. They constantly made raids upon them. It was a sore humiliation when Germany marched right up to Paris, dictated terms to the conquered in their own great Palace at Versailles, and made them pay heavily before they would go home. But suppose it had been Belgium! And yet Philistia answered somewhat to that: so low and weak do men become when they depart from the living God. But then it was that the Lord in wrath remembered mercy, and sent them Samson, a mighty deliverer. Deborah and Barak had delivered them before. Gideon and Jephthah had kept up the bright succession, and now Samson entered into it, and for a long time made the Philistines tremble. Never were such wonders known as he wrought, and the oppressions of the Philistines soon came to an end. O sunny, strong, stout-hearted Samson, how much good you might have done if you could have ruled yourself as well as conquering your foes! But there he failed, and so all was a failure. He was a Nazarite, and so never took any wine, according to the Nazarite vow, and yet he was completely overcome by the lusts of the flesh. It was not in vain that the net had been spread in the sight of the bird. He had seen the wicked Delilah and the savage Philistines spreading it together, and had been taken in it just the same. The same razor that cut his hair, the sign of his strength, could have cut his throat at any time. But for a few months he lingered on in penitence and prayer, whilst his hair grew once more--the sign, though not the source, of his strength. And then came a great day in Gaza, when they gathered to glorify their god Dagon in thousands. So with one tremendous effort of his new-found strength down came the columns, and down came the temple, and down came the people, and the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. So when they thought themselves most secure their sport was turned to woe, and in an hour when they looked not for it their destruction came,
II. But now let us look at some of the lessons which this remarkable story is designed to teach.
1. And the obvious one on the face of the whole narrative is the poor figure that mere physical strength cuts. There are three sorts of strength--physical, intellectual, and spiritual--and the greatest of these is spiritual. If this be lacking, the other two are of little use. Later on, Solomon was an example of how mental power is of little worth without true godliness. Samson is an example of great strength of body, but he becomes the fool and the plaything of wicked women. There is a great deal of attention paid to physical strength to-day, but it is a poor thing at the best. Bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. We may have very strong muscles and very weak resolutions, and when the greatest strength is secured it is very inferior to that of the gorilla. God only began to deliver Israel in Samsons day, it is significantly said. The real and effective deliverance came later on, when Samuel, the wise and the good, judged Israel for a long time, and David carried on his moral and spiritual reformation.
2. But, further, let us never rely on certain moralities if we are failing in obedience to God. Samson was not devoid of all spiritual strength. He was a Nazarite from his birth, and the vow of the Nazarite, of which he is the first example, included abstinence from wine and all similar drinks. There is a false sympathy as well as a true, and its influence is to misinterpret and condone evil. So we are perpetually told by a certain class of writers that Charles I. may have been a great public sinner, but he had excellent private virtues. He may have been, as declared in his sentence, a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, and a public enemy, but he was a good husband and a good father. He broke his coronation oath a hundred times, but then he always kept his marriage vow. He was an awful tyrant, but he took his little son on his knee and kissed him. He was a dreadful liar, but he went to the prayers in his chapel sometimes at six in the morning. So, well may Lord Macaulay exclaim, If in the most important things we find him to have been selfish, cruel, and deceitful, we will take the liberty to call him a bad man, in spite of all his temperance at table and all his regularity at chapel.
3. Let us remember that the badge of our consecration is largely the pledge of our strength.
4. Yea, let the very Dagon worshippers teach us some such lesson. When Samson was caught, like some wild beast, they all gathered together to do honour to their fish-god Dagon. It was nothing to do with Dagon, but instead of honouring Delilah and the lords of the Philistines who had enticed her, they had a great assembly to do honour to their god. They said, when they saw Samson, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. There was not quite enough of this in Samson, even when he had his strength. When he slew his thousand Philistines it was, I have done it. Yes, we may often learn from those that have not our light. The Mohammedans believe many a lie and strong delusion, but this is what Mr. Wilson says of them in Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan: These Arabs are most regular in performing their devotions, even on the march. I noticed frequently sand on their foreheads, chins, and noses, from their prostrations during prayers. The sand is never wiped off, as it is considered a mark of honour on a believers face. Oh, let us keep before us the true mercies and blessings of the true God, and pay our vows unto the Most High! (W. J. Heaton.)
From weakness to strength
That child was a dedicated child. Could any parent have a child, and not dedicate it? Could that parent be a Christian? Deal with that little child not as a plaything, but as a holy thing given you of God, and which you have given back to Him. Remember it, my children! You are Gods child. Your body, your mind, and your soul belong to God. Remember it in your play, in your studies, when you get up in the morning. This child was still a growing child, when the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times. God takes the initiative with us in everything; and there is no age so tender, and no thought or feeling so simple, but the Holy Spirit may be there. Is there a boy or a girl who could not say that they have thoughts, whispers, little inward voices, drawings of heart, which they have felt and knew to be of God? You will observe that the moving of the Spirit is placed immediately after and the Lord blessed him. The moving is the blessing. We should do well if we always looked at a good thought when it comes and say, This is God blessing me. This thought is a benediction. You may notice that the moving was not only dated as to time, but dated as respects the exact place. So important a moving is, in Gods sight. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. How precise! If we could see that register in heaven, we should find them all there in distinct order--the exact when, and the exact where, the Holy Spirit comes to us. It would be a solemn thing to confront that register. Have you kept any account? We often try; but the number wilt outstretch all our arithmetic! Doubtless it was strength which the moving of the Spirit gave to the young Samson. Strength is a special gift of the Holy Ghost. His operations are always strengthening. It is what we all, in our great weakness, particularly want; and therefore He particularly supplies. For we have to deal with very strong things--a strong will; a strong besetting sin; a strong tide of evil in us and about us; a strong invisible foe! We have to be very thankful that He who said, Be strong! has placed it among the offices of the Holy Ghost to stablish, strengthen, settle us. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v24 Jdg_13:24-25; Jdg_14:1-20
SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE
Jdg_13:24-25; Jdg_14:1-20
Read full note →
Or all who move before us in the Book of Judges Samson is preeminently the popular hero. In rude giant strength and wild daring he stands alone against the enemies of Israel, contemptuous of their power and their plots. It is just such a man who catches the public eye and lives in the traditions of a country. Most Hebrews of the time minded piety and culture as little as did the Norsemen when they first professed Christianity. Both races liked manliness and feats of daring and could pardon much to one who flung his enemies and theirs to the ground with god-like strength of arm, and in the narrative of Samsons exploits we trace this note of popular estimation. He is a singular hero of faith, quite akin to those half-converted, half-savage chiefs of the north who thought the best they could do for God was to kill His enemies and bound themselves by fierce oaths in the name of Christ to hack and slaughter. For the separateness from others, the isolation which marked Samsons whole career the reasons are evident. His vow of Nazaritism, for one thing, kept him apart. Others were their own men, he was Jehovahs. His radiant health and uncommon physical energy even in boyhood were to himself and others the sign of a divine blessing which maintained his sense of consecration. While he looked on at the riot and drunkenness of the feasts of his people he felt a growing revulsion, nor was he pleased with other indications of their temper. The frequent raids of Philistines from their walled cities by the coast struck terror far and wide-up the valleys of Dan into the heart of Judah and Ephraim. Samson ashe grew up marked the supineness of his people with wonder and disgust. If he did anything for them it was not because he honoured them but in fulfilment of his destiny. At the same time we must note that the hero, though a man of wit, was not wise. He did the most injudicious things. He had nothing in him of the diplomatist, not much of the leader of men. It was only now and again when the mood took him that he cared to exert himself. So he went his own way an admired hero, a lonely giant among smaller beings. Worst of all he was an easy prey to some kinds of temptation. Restrained on one side, he gave himself license on others; his strength was always undisciplined, and early in his career we can almost predict how it will end. He ventures into one snare after another. The time is sure to come when he will fall into a pit out of which there is no way of escape.
Of the early life of the great Danite judge there is no record save that he grew and the Lord blessed him. The parents whose home on the hillside he filled with boisterous glee must have looked on the lad with something like awe-so different was he from others, so great were the hopes based on his future. Doubtless they did their best for him. The consecration of his life to God they deeply impressed on his mind and taught him as well as they could the worship of the Unseen Jehovah in the sacrifice of lamb or kid at the altar, in prayers for protection and prosperity. But nothing is said of instruction in the righteousness, the purity, the mercifulness which the law of God required. Manoah and his wife seem to have made the mistake of thinking that outside the vow moral education and discipline would come naturally, so far as they were needed. There was great strictness on certain points and elsewhere such laxity that he must have soon become wilful and headstrong and somewhat of a terror to the father and mother. Lads of his own age would of course adore him; as their leader in every bold pastime he would command their deference and loyalty, and many a wild thing was done, we can fancy, at which the people of the valley laughed uneasily or shook their heads in dismay. He who afterwards tied the jackals tails together and set fire brands between each pair to burn the Philistines corn must have served an apprenticeship to that kind of savage sport. Hebrew or alien for miles round who roused the anger of Samson would soon learn how dangerous it was to provoke him. Yet a dash of generosity always took the edge from fiery temper and rash revenge, and the people of Dan, for their part, would allow much to one who was expected to bring deliverance to Israel. The wild and dangerous youth was the only champion they could see.
But even before manhood Samson had times of deeper feeling than people in general would have looked for. Boisterous, hot-blooded, impetuous natures grievously wanting in decorum and sagacity are not always superficial; and there were occasions when the Spirit of the Lord began to move Samson. He felt the purpose of his vow, saw the serious work to which his destiny was urging him, looked down on the plain of the Philistines with a kindling eye, spoke in strains that even rose to prophetic intensity. At Mahaneh-Dan, the camp of Dan, where the more resolute spirits of the tribe came together for military exercise or to repel some raid of the enemy, Samson began to speak of his purpose and to make schemes for Israels liberation. Into these the fiery vehemence of the young man flowed, and the enthusiasm of his nature bore others along. Can we be wrong in supposing that in various ways, by plans often ill-considered, he sought to harass the Philistines, and that failure as a leader in these left him somewhat discredited? Samson was just of that sanguine venturesome disposition which makes light of difficulties and is always courting defeat. It was easy for him with his immense bodily strength to break through where other men were entrapped. A frequent result of the frays into which he hurried must have been, we imagine, to make his own friends doubt him rather than to injure the enemy. At all events he became no commander like Gideon or Jephthah, and the men of Judah, if not of Dan, while they acknowledged his calling and his power, began to think of him as a dangerous champion.
So far we have the merest hints by which to go, but the narrative becomes more detailed when it approaches the time of Samsons marriage. A strange union it is for a hero of Israel. What made him think of going down among the Philistines for a wife? How can the sacred writer say that the thing was of the Lord? Let us try to understand the circumstances. Between the people of Zorah and the villagers of Timnah a few miles down the valley on the other side who, though Philistines, were presumably not of the fighting sort, there was a kind of enforced neighbourliness. They could not have lived at all unless they had been content, Philistines for their part, Hebrews for theirs, to let the general enmity sleep. Samson by observing certain precautions and keeping his Hebrew tongue quiet was safe enough in Timnah, an object of fear rather than himself in danger. At the same time there may have been a touch of bravado in his rambles to the Philistine settlement, and the young woman of whom he caught a passing glance, perhaps at the spring, had very likely all the more charm for him that she was of the strong hostile race. History as well as fiction supplies instances in which this fascination does its work, family feuds, oppositions of caste and religion directing the eye and the fancy instead of repelling. In his sudden wilful way Samson resolved, and his mind once made up no one in Zorah could induce him to alter it. "The thing was of the Lord; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines." Perhaps Samson thought the woman would be denied to him, a straight way to a quarrel. But more probably it is the outcome of the whole pitiful business that is in the mind of the historian. After the event he traces the hand of Providence.
As we pass with Samson and his parents down to Timnah we cannot but agree with Manoah in his objection, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that. thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" It was emphatically one of those cases in which liking should not have led. An impetuous man is not to be excused; much less those who claim to be exceedingly rational and yet go against reason because of what they call love-or, worse, apart from love. General rules are with difficulty laid down in matters of this sort, and to deny the right of love would be the worst error of all. So far as our popular writers are concerned, we must allow that they wonderfully balance the claims of "arrangement" and honest affection, declaring strongly for the latter. But yet such a difference as between faith and idolatry, between piety and godlessness, is a barrier that only the blindest folly can overleap when marriage is in view. Daughters of the Philistines may be "most divinely fair," most graceful and plausible; men who worship Moloch or Mammon, or nothing but themselves, may have most persuasive tongues and a large share of this worlds goods. But to mate with these, whatever liking there may be, is an experiment too rash for venturing. In Christian society now, is there not much need to repeat old warnings and revive a sense of peril that seems to have decayed? The conscience of piously bred young people was alive once to the danger and sin of the unequal yoke. In the rush for position and means marriage is being made by both sexes, even in most religious circles, an instrument and opportunity of earthly ambition, and it must be said that foolish romance is less to be feared than this carefulness in which conscience and heart alike submit to the imperious cravings of sheer worldliness. Novels have much to answer for; yet they can make one claim-they have done something for simple humanity. We want more than nature, however. Christian teaching must be heard and the Christian conscience must be rekindled. The hope of the world waits on that devout simplicity of life which exalts spiritual aims and spiritual comradeship and by its beauty shames all meaner choice. In marriage not only should heart go out to heart, but mind to mind and soul to soul; and the spirit of one who knows Christ can never unite with a self worshipper or a servant of Mammon.
Returning to Samsons case, he would possibly have said that he wished an adventurous marriage, that to wed a Danite woman would have in it too little risk, would be too dull, too commonplace a business for him, that he wanted a plunge into new waters. It is in this way, one must believe, many decide the great affair. So far from thinking they put thought away; a liking seizes them and in they leap. Yet in the best considered marriage that can be made is there not quite enough of adventure for any sane man or woman? Always there remain points of character unknown, unsuspected, possibilities of sickness, trouble, privation that fill the future with uncertainty, so far as human vision goes. It is, in truth, a serious undertaking for men and women, and to be entered upon only with the distinct assurance that divine providence clears the way and invites our advance. Yet again we are not to be suspicious of each other, probing every trait and habit to the quick. Marriage is the great example and expression of the trust which it is the glory of men and women to exercise and to deserve, the great symbol on earth of the confidences and unions of immortality. Matter of deep thankfulness it is that so many who begin the married life and end it on a low level, having scarcely a glimpse of the ideal, though they fail of much do not fail of all, but in some patience, some courage and fidelity show that God has not left them to nature and to earth. And happy are they who adventure together on no way of worldly policy or desire but in the pure love and heavenly faith which link their lives forever in binding them to God.
Samson, reasoned with by his parents, waved their objection royally aside and ordered them to aid his design. It was necessary, according to the custom of the country, that they should conduct the negotiations for the marriage, and his wilfulness imposed on them a task that went against their consciences. So they found themselves with the common reward of worshipping parents. They had toiled for him, made much of him, boasted about him no doubt; and now their boy-god turns round and commands them in a thing they cannot believe to be right. They must choose between Jehovah and Samson and they have to give up Jehovah and serve their own lad. So Davids pride in Absalom ended with the rebellion that drove the aged father from Jerusalem and exposed him to the contempt of Israel. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, the yoke even of parents who are not so wise as they might be and do not command much reverence. The order of family life among us, involving no absolute bondage, is recognised as a wholesome discipline by all who attain to any understanding of life. In Israel, as we know, filial respect and obedience were virtues sacredly commended, and it is one mark of Samsons ill-regulated self-esteeming disposition that he neglected the obvious duty of deference to the judgment of his parents.
On the way to Timnah the young man had an adventure which was to play an important part in his life. Turning aside out of the road he found himself suddenly confronted by a lion which, doubtless as much surprised as he was by the encounter, roared against him. The moment was not without its peril; but Samson was equal to the emergency and springing on the beast "rent it as he would have rent a kid."
The affair however did not seem worth referring to when he joined his parents, and they went on their way. It was as when a man of strong moral principle and force meets a temptation dangerous to the weak, to him an enemy easily overcome. His vigorous truth or honour or chastity makes short work of it. He lays hold of it and in a moment it is torn in pieces. The great talk made about temptations, the ready excuses many find for themselves when they yield, are signs of a feebleness of will which in other ranges of life the same persons would be ashamed to own. It is to be feared that we often encourage moral weakness and unfaithfulness to duty by exaggerating the force of evil influences, Why should it be reckoned a feat to be honest, to be generous, to swear to ones own hurt? Under the dispensation of the Spirit of God, with Christ as our guide and stay, every one of us should act boldly in the encounter with the lions of temptation. Tenderness to the weak is a Christian duty, but there is danger that young and old alike, hearing much of the seductions of sin, little of the ready help of the Almighty, submit easily where they should conquer and reckon on divine forbearance when they ought to expect reproach and contempt. Our generation needs to hear the words of St. Paul: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." Is there a tremendous pressure constantly urging us towards that which is evil? In our large cities especially is the power of iniquity almost despotic? True enough. Yet men and women should be braced and strengthened by insistence on the other side. In Christian lands at least it is unquestionable that for every enticement to evil there is a stronger allurement to good, that against every argument for immorality ten are set more potent in behalf of virtue, that where sin abounds grace does much more abound. Young persons are indeed tempted; but nothing will be gained by speaking to them or about them as if they were children incapable of decision, of whom it can only be expected that they will fail. By the Spirit of God, indeed, all moral victories are gained; the natural virtue of the best is uncertain and cannot be trusted irk the trying hour, and he only who has a full inward life and earnest Christian purpose is ready for the test. But the Spirit of God is given. His sustaining, purifying, strengthening power is with us. We do not breathe deep, and then we complain that our hearts cease to beat with holy courage and resolve.
At Timnah, where life was perhaps freer than in a Hebrew town, Samson appears to have seen the woman who had caught his fancy; and he now found her, Philistine as she was, quite to his mind. It must have been by a low standard he judged, and many possible topics of conversation must have been carefully avoided. Under the circumstances, indeed, the difficulty of understanding each others language may have been their safety. Certainly one who professed to be a fearer of God, a patriotic Israelite, had to shut his eyes to many facts or thrust them from sight when he determined to wed this daughter of the enemy. But when we choose we can do much in the way of keeping things out of view which we do not wish to see. Persons who are at daggers drawn on fifty points show the greatest possible affability when it is their interest to be at one. Love gets over difficulties and so does policy. Occasions are found when the anxiously orthodox can join in some comfortable compact with the agnostic, and the vehement state churchman with the avowed secularist and revolutionary. And it seems to be only when two are nearly of the same creed, with just some hairsbreadth of divergence on a few articles of belief, that the obstacles to happy union are apt to become insurmountable. Then every word is watched, each tone noted with suspicion. It is not between Hebrew and Philistine but between Ephraim and Judah that alliances are difficult to form. We hope for the time when the long and bitter disputes of Christendom shall be overcome by love of truth and God. Yet first there must be an end to the strange reconcilings and unions which like Samsons marriage often confuse and obstruct the way of Christian people.
There is an interval of some months after the marriage has been arranged and the bridegroom is on his way once more down the valley to Timnah. As he passes the scene of his encounter with the lion he turns aside to see the carcase and finds that bees have made it their home. Vultures and ants have first found it and devoured the flesh, then the sun has thoroughly dried the skin and in the hollow of the ribs the bees have settled. At considerable risk Samson possesses himself of some of the combs and goes on eating the honey, giving a portion also to his father and mother. It is again a type, and this time of the sweetness to be found in the recollection of virtuous energy and overcoming. Not that we are to be always dwelling on our faithfulness even for the purpose of thanking God Who gave us moral strength. But when circumstances recall a trial and victory it is surely matter of proper joy to remember that here we were strong enough to be true, and there to be honest and pure when the odds seemed to be against us. The memories of a good man or good woman are sweeter than the honeycomb, though tempered often by sorrow over the human instruments of evil who had to be struggled with and thrust aside in the sharp conflict with sin and wrong. Very few in youth or middle life seem to think of this joy, which makes beautiful many a worn and aged face on earth and will not be the least element in the felicity of heaven. Too often we bear burdens because we must; we are dragged through trim and distress to comparative quiet; we do not comprehend what is at stake, what we may do and gain, what we are kept from losing; and so the look across our past has none of the glow of triumph, little of the joy of harvest. For mans blessedness is not to be separated from personal striving. In fidelity he must sow that he may reap in strength, in courage that he may reap in gladness. He is made not for mere success, not for mere safety, but for overcoming.
We are not finished with the lion; he next appears covertly, in a riddle. Samson has shown himself a strong man; now we hear him speak and he proves a wit. It is the wedding festival, and thirty young men have been gathered-to honour the bridegroom, shall we say?-or to watch him? Perhaps from the first there has been suspicion in the Philistine mind, and it seems necessary to have as many as thirty to one in order to overawe Samson. In the course of the feast there might be quarrels, and without a strong guard on the Hebrew youth Timnah might be in danger. As the days went by the company fell to proposing riddles and Samson, probably annoyed by the Philistines who watched every movement, gave them his, on terms quite fair, yet leaving more than a loophole for discontent and strife. In the conditions we see the man perfectly self-reliant, full of easy superiority, courting danger and defying envy. The thirty may win-if they can. In that case he knows how he will pay the forfeit. "Put forth thy riddle," they said, "that we may hear it"; and the strong mellow Hebrew voice chanted the puzzling verse:
"Out of the eater came forth meat
Out of the strong came forth sweetness."
Now in itself this is simply a curiosity of old-world table talk. It is preserved here mainly because of its bearing on following events; and certainly the statement which has been made that it contained a gospel for the Philistines is one we cannot endorse. Yet like many witty sayings the riddle has a range of meaning far wider than Samson intended. Adverse influences conquered, temptation mastered, difficulties overcome, the struggle of faithfulness will supply us not only with happy recollections but also with arguments against infidelity, with questions that confound the unbeliever. One who can glory in tribulations that have brought experience and hope, in bonds and imprisonments that have issued in a keener sense of liberty, who having nothing yet possesses all things-such a man questioning the denier of divine providence cannot be answered. Invigoration has come out of that which threatened life and joy out of that which made for sorrow. The man who is in covenant with God is helped by nature; its forces serve him; he is fed with honey from the rock and with the finest of the wheat. When out of the mire of trouble and the deep waters of despondency he comes forth braver, more hopeful, strongly confident in the love of God, sure of the eternal foundation of life, what can be said in denial of the power that has filled him with strength and peace? Here is an argument that can be used by every Christian, and ought to be in every Christians hand. Out of his personal experience each should be able to state problems and put inquiries unanswerable by unbelief. For unless there is a living God Whose favour is life, Whose fellowship inspires and ennobles the soul, the strength which has come through weakness, the hope that sprang up in the depth of sorrow cannot be accounted for. There are natural sequences in which no mystery lies. When one who has been defamed and injured turns on his enemy and pursues him in revenge, when one who has been defeated sinks back in languor and waits in pitiful inaction for death, these are results easily traced to their cause. But the man of faith bears witness to sequences of a different kind. His fellows have persecuted him, and he cares for them still. Death has bereaved him, and he can smile in its face. Afflictions have been multiplied and he glories in them. The darkness has fallen and he rejoices more than in the noontide of prosperity. Out of the eater has come forth meat, out of the strong has come forth sweetness. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The paradox of the life of Christ thus stated by Himself is the supreme instance of that demonstration of divine power which the history of every Christian should clearly and constantly support.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 17, 21, 22 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v8 The Second Appearance of the Angel
The Second Appearance of the Angel
v. 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. He was not unbelieving, but he desired a confirmation of his wife’s statements and further instructions as to their manner of conducting themselves.
Read full note →
v. 9. And God hearkened unto the voice of Manoah, for He has respect to the scruples of His weak children if they but turn to Him in childlike trust. And the Angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
v. 10. And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, announced the fact of the Angel’s coming to her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. Her language was again that which implied that she believed the visitor to be the Angel of the Lord.
v. 11. And Manoah arose, from the work which he just then had in hand, and went after his wife, who ran ahead in her eagerness, and came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And He said, I am.
v. 12. And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? When this happy event would take place, he wanted to be sure of treating the boy in a manner which would accord entirely with God’s plans.
v. 13. And the Angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman let her beware; she had sufficient instructions concerning her conduct.
v. 14. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, not even the tendrils and leaves, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe, the responsibility was naturally laid on the mother, because a holy and pure consecration was to rest on him whom she was to bring forth.
v. 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. This reminds us of the manner in which Gideon wanted to show hospitality to the Angel of the Lord, Jdg 6:18-21.
v. 16. And the Angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain Me, I will not eat of thy bread, of the meal prepared for Him; and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord, literally, "But if thou wilt offer a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah, offer it"; that is, He would not hinder Manoah, he might go ahead with his preparations. For Manoah knew not that He was an Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the Lord in the very special sense of the word.
v. 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 honor? namely, by sending presents.
v. 18. And the Angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after My name, seeing it is secret? The great name of the heavenly Visitor was Peli, that is, Wonderful, the God of wonders, Isa 9:6 (5) A miracle He performed here before Manoah and his wife, but a far greater miracle was to be performed in the future, when He whose name is Wonderful would be born of a virgin.
v. 19. So Manoah, still not knowing the identity of the visitor, took a kid with a meat-offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, as a burnt offering; and the Angel did wondrously, performed a miracle with it before their eyes; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
v. 20. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, evidently in a manner similar to that related in the case of Gideon, Jdg 6:21, for the flame seems to have come out of the rock, that the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar, thereby revealing His identity. And Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground, in worshipful adoration at the presence of God.
v. 21. But the Angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife, He did not present Himself in visible form again. Then Manoah knew, he finally understood and was convinced, that he was an Angel of the Lord.
v. 22. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God. Cf Gen 16:13; Exo 33:20.
v. 23. But his wife, whose faith was more childlike, but also firmer, 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 showed us all these things; the acceptance of their sacrifice, together with the miraculous Revelation showed that the Lord was not angry with them; nor would as at this time have told us such things as these, He would not have given them the promise of a son at a stated time if He had planned to put them to death.
v. 24. And the woman, the wife of Manoah, in due time bare a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. Cf 1Sa 2:21.
v. 25. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. This statement serves as an introduction to the following chapters, with their narration of Samson’s exploits, for in every case the Spirit of Jehovah took hold on him and impelled him to perform special deeds of valor against the Philistines. Samson is clearly a type of Christ, whose conception and birth was far more miraculous, however. And Christ was always and in extraordinary measure filled with the Holy Ghost, for He was, even in His human existence, united with the Father in the most intimate relationship. And as Samson was a savior of his people, so Christ, again in a measure beyond compare, is the Redeemer of all His people, of the whole world, from the oppression of death and the devil.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24 give birth to a son
give birth to a son
This refers to childbirth. AT: "bear a son" or "have a baby boy" (See: Idiom)
Read full note →
anything unclean
Something that Yahweh has stated is unfit to eat is spoken of as if it were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)
Look
"Pay attention" or "Listen"
No razor will be used upon his head
Here the word "head" refers to his hair. This can be stated in active form. AT: "No one should ever cut his hair" (See: Metonymy and Active or Passive)
razor
a sharp knife used to cut hair close to the skin
a Nazirite to God
This means that he will be devoted to God as a Nazirite. AT: "a Nazirite devoted to God" or "devoted to God as a Nazirite" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
from the womb
Here the word "womb" refers to the time before the child is born. AT: "from before he is born" (See: Metonymy)
the hand of the Philistines
Here the word "hand" means control. AT: "the control of the Philistines" or "being under the Philistine's control" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
angel
Yahweh
wine
strong drink
clean
Nazirite
womb
deliver
hand
Philistines
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.