3 And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son.
But the angel said, Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John.
Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it. And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war.
Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, *** I took you out of Egypt, guiding you into the land which I gave by an oath to your fathers; and I said, My agreement with you will never be broken by me:
And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife. And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority. And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered. And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow. And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers. And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living?
And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door.
Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name;
So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day.
Now the time came when Hannah, being with child, gave birth to a son; and she gave him the name Samuel, Because, she said, I made a prayer to the Lord for him.
And the angel came in to her and said, Peace be with you, to whom special grace has been given; the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at his words, and said to herself, What may be the purpose of these words? And the angel said to her, Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval. And see, you will give birth to a son, and his name will be Jesus. He will be great, and will be named the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his father: He will have rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How may this be, because I have had no knowledge of a man? And the angel in answer said to her, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will come to rest on you, and so that which will come to birth will be named holy, Son of God. Even now Elisabeth, who is of your family, is to be a mother, though she is old: and this is the sixth month with her who was without children. For there is nothing which God is not able to do. And Mary said: I am the servant of the Lord; may it be to me as you say. And the angel went away.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Judges 13
Commentary on Judges 13 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 13
Jud 13:1. Israel Serves the Philistines Forty Years.
1. the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years—The Israelites were represented (Jud 10:6, 7) as having fallen universally into a state of gross and confirmed idolatry, and in chastisement of this great apostasy, the Lord raised up enemies that harassed them in various quarters, especially the Ammonites and Philistines. The invasions and defeat of the former were narrated in the two chapters immediately preceding this; and now the sacred historian proceeds to describe the inroads of the latter people. The period of Philistine ascendency comprised forty years, reckoning from the time of Elon till the death of Samson.
Jud 13:2-10. An Angel Appears to Manoah's Wife.
2. Zorah—a Danite town (Jos 15:33) lying on the common boundary of Judah and Dan, so that it was near the Philistine border.
3. the angel of the Lord—The messenger of the covenant, the divine personage who made so many remarkable appearances of a similar kind already described.
5. thou shalt conceive, and bear a son—This predicted child was to be a Nazarite. The mother was, therefore, for the sake of her promised offspring, required to practice the rigid abstinence of the Nazarite law (see on Nu 6:2).
he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines—a prophecy encouraging to a patriotic man; the terms of it, however, indicated that the period of deliverance was still to be distant.
6-8. then Manoah entreated the Lord—On being informed by his wife of the welcome intimation, the husband made it the subject of earnest prayer to God. This is a remarkable instance, indicative of the connection which God has established between prayer and the fulfilment of His promises.
Jud 13:11-14. The Angel Appears to Manoah.
11. Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?—Manoah's intense desire for the repetition of the angel's visit was prompted not by doubts or anxieties of any kind, but was the fruit of lively faith, and of his great anxiety to follow out the instructions given. Blessed was he who had not seen, yet had believed.
Jud 13:15-23. Manoah's Sacrifice.
15. Manoah said unto the angel …, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid—The stranger declined the intended hospitality and intimated that if the meat were to be an offering, it must be presented to the Lord [Jud 13:6]. Manoah needed this instruction, for his purpose was to offer the prepared viands to him, not as the Lord, but as what he imagined him to be, not even an angel (Jud 13:16), but a prophet or merely human messenger. It was on this account, and not as rejecting divine honors, that he spoke in this manner to Manoah. The angel's language was exactly similar to that of our Lord (Mt 19:17).
17-20. Manoah said unto the angel …, What is thy name?—Manoah's request elicited the most unequivocal proofs of the divinity of his supernatural visitor—in his name "secret" (in the Margin, "wonderful"), and in the miraculous flame that betokened the acceptance of the sacrifice.
Jud 13:24, 25. Samson Born.
24. the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson—The birth of this child of promise, and the report of the important national services he was to render, must, from the first, have made him an object of peculiar interest and careful instruction.
25. the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times—not, probably, as it moved the prophets, who were charged with an inspired message, but kindling in his youthful bosom a spirit of high and devoted patriotism.
Eshtaol—the free city. It, as well as Zorah, stood on the border between Judah and Dan.