Samson’s Birth Is Announced Before Israel Cries Out

Forty years under the Philistines is the longest oppression in the book, and it runs past Samson’s life: he judges “in the days of the Philistines” twenty years (15:20), and the Philistines are only subdued under Samuel (1 Samuel 7:13).

Manoah means “rest”, from the root of Noah’s name. Most of Dan will migrate north in chapter 18; this family stayed at Zorah in the old allotment. His wife’s barrenness puts her in a line with Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Hannah, each of whom bore a son of promise.

She is never named. Jewish tradition supplied a name, Hazzelelponi, taken from a woman of Judah in 1 Chronicles 4:3 (Talmud Bava Batra 91a). The angel begins by naming her grief, “thou art barren”, before he names her future.

The mother keeps the Nazirite rules of Numbers 6:3 while she carries the child: no wine, no strong drink. “Any unclean thing” refers to the food laws of Leviticus 11. The consecration begins in her body before the boy has one of his own.

Hannah’s vow for Samuel uses the same words: “there shall no razor come upon his head” (1 Samuel 1:11). “Nazarite” is nazir, one separated; Numbers 6:7 calls his hair “the consecration of his God upon his head”, using nezer, the word also used for a crown.

“Very terrible” is nora, awe inspiring. “A man of God” is the title given to Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1) and to prophets. She did not ask his name, which sets up her husband’s question later in the chapter (verse 17).

Her report differs from the angel’s words in two ways. She leaves out the razor and the promise that he would begin to deliver Israel, and she adds a phrase of her own: “to the day of his death”. The Book of Judges will end Samson’s life with a Nazirite’s death (16:30).

“Intreated” is atar, the verb used when “Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren” (Genesis 25:21). “Teach us” is yorenu, from the root of torah: Manoah asks for instruction, and names the angel “the man of God” as his wife did.

At Mamre the promise was given to Abraham while Sarah listened from the tent (Genesis 18:9–10). Here the pattern is reversed: the angel returns to the wife in the field, and “Manoah her husband was not with her”. God answers the husband’s prayer by visiting the wife.

“Made haste, and ran” pairs two verbs of speed, as when Abraham “ran unto the herd” (Genesis 18:7) and Rebekah “ran, and told them of her mother’s house” (Genesis 24:28). “The other day” is literally “that day”, the day of the first visit.

The Talmud (Berakhot 61a) seized on the phrase “went after his wife” and called Manoah an unlearned man for walking behind her. The angel’s reply to his question is one Hebrew word, ani, “I”.

“How shall we order the child” is literally “what shall be the mishpat of the boy”: his rule, his manner of life. Mishpat comes from the same root as shofet, judge. Manoah asks for the rule of a child who will himself judge Israel.

The answer is addressed to the husband but concerns the wife: “let her beware”. Nothing is said about how the boy will be raised, and nothing about his hair; the angel keeps the attention on what the mother must do now.

“Any thing that cometh of the vine” goes beyond wine to grapes and raisins, as Numbers 6:4 has it: “nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.” The angel’s second instruction is stricter than the first.

Gideon made the same offer to his visitor, and prepared the same meal, a kid (6:18–19). Both men follow Abraham’s pattern at Mamre: “let me fetch a morsel of bread” for the stranger (Genesis 18:5).

The three visitors at Mamre ate what Abraham set before them (Genesis 18:8); this visitor refuses. The Book of Judges adds an aside for the reader, “For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD”, so that Manoah’s hospitality is read as sincere, not foolish.

“Do thee honour” means give him a gift or reward when the promise comes true, the sense in which Balak offered Balaam “very great honour” (Numbers 22:17). Manoah wants to know whom to pay.

Jacob asked the name of the man who wrestled with him and was told, “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?” (Genesis 32:29). “Secret” is peli, wonderful, the root of the name in Isaiah 9:6, “his name shall be called Wonderful”.

“Did wondrously” is maphli laasot, from the same root as the name the angel would not give: the one whose name is Wonderful does a wonder. The offering is placed on a rock, as Gideon’s was, and the wonder follows.

At Aaron’s first sacrifice fire came from the LORD, and the people “shouted, and fell on their faces” (Leviticus 9:24); on Carmel the people fell on their faces when fire consumed Elijah’s offering (1 Kings 18:39). Manoah and his wife do the same.

This is the last appearance of the angel of the LORD in the Book of Judges. From here the book’s divine action comes through the Spirit moving Samson and through God answering prayer, not through visible messengers.

Hagar called the God who spoke to her “Thou God seest me” and wondered that she had seen and lived (Genesis 16:13). Jacob said at Peniel, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Manoah draws the opposite conclusion.

Manoah said “God”, Elohim; his wife answers with “the LORD”, YHWH. Her argument has three proofs: God accepted our offering, showed us these things, and told us what is to come. A God who promises a son does not intend to kill the parents first.

Samson is Shimshon, from shemesh, “sun”, perhaps “little sun”. Zorah looks across the valley to Beth-shemesh, “house of the sun”. The mother names him, as Leah, Rachel and Hannah named their sons.

“To move” is paam, to stir or strike like a hammer on an anvil, the verb used of Pharaoh’s troubled spirit after his dreams (Genesis 41:8). “The camp of Dan” is Mahaneh-dan, named in 18:12 after the Danites camped there on their way north.