The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Birth of Samson
Judges 13:1–25 — The Birth of Samson. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·si·p̄ū bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl la·‘ă·śō·wṯ hā·ra‘ bə·‘ê·nê Yah·weh Yah·weh way·yit·tə·nêm bə·yaḏ- pə·liš·tîm ’ar·bā·‘îm šā·nāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-added, the-sons-of-Israel, to-do the-evil in-the-eyes-of YHWH; and-YHWH gave-them into-the-hand-of Philistines forty year.
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Forty years. —These terminated with the battle of Ebenezer ( 1Samuel 7:13 ). The ark had been taken and sent back about twenty years before this battle, and the acts of Samson probably fall within those twenty years, so that Eli died about the time that Samson came of age.
The Dtc. compiler treats the age of Samson on the principle of Jdg 3:7 f., which has been illustrated in the foregoing narratives ( Jdg 3:7-15 , Jdg 4:1-3 , Jdg 6:1-7 , Jdg 10:6-8 ); but no hostile invasion is mentioned 13–16; while the Philistine domination lasted to the time of David, much longer than 40 years.Cambridge writes from a source-critical frame the other voices here do not share; his point that the Philistine domination outlasted forty years is an observation about the text's own chronology, and stands whether or not one accepts his editorial theory.
This is the longest oppression which the Israelites ever sustained, but Sir John Marsham and others think it is not different from that mentioned Jdg 10:7-8 , but one and the same with it;
2Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî ’e·ḥāḏ ’îš miṣ·ṣā·rə·‘āh ū·šə·mōw mā·nō·w·aḥ mim·miš·pa·ḥaṯ had·dā·nî wə·’iš·tōw ‘ă·qā·rāh wə·lō yā·lā·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-there-was one man from-Zorah, and-his-name Manoah, from-the-clan of-the-Danite; and-his-wife barren, and-not she-had-borne.
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3The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mal·’aḵ- Yah·weh way·yê·rā ’el- hā·’iš·šāh way·yō·mer ’ê·le·hā hin·nêh- nā ’at- ‘ă·qā·rāh wə·lō yā·laḏt wə·hā·rîṯ wə·yā·laḏt bên
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-appeared the-messenger-of-YHWH unto the-woman, and-said unto-her: “Behold-now, thou art-barren and-hast-not borne; but-thou-shalt-conceive and-bear a-son.
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Rabbi Levi Ben Gershom says that this “messenger of the Lord” was Phinehas; but nothing can be clearer than that, as in Judges 6:11 , Genesis 18:10 , Luke 1:11-28 , a supernatural being is meant.
The angel of the Lord; the Son of God, oft so called in the Old Testament, as may be gathered from Judges 13:18 , yet distinguished from the Lord, because he appeared here as it were in the form of a servant, as a messenger sent from God, and was really a distinct person from God the Father.Poole states the classic Christian identification of this figure as the pre-incarnate Son. It is an interpretive judgment, argued from v. 18 and from the worship in vv. 20–22, not something the Hebrew of v. 3 says on its own.
4Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·‘at·tāh nā hiš·šā·mə·rî wə·’al- tiš·tî ya·yin wə·šê·ḵār wə·’al- tō·ḵə·lî kāl- ṭā·mê
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-now guard-thyself, I-pray: and-do-not drink wine or-strong-drink, and-do-not eat any unclean.
Where the English smooths the original
Strong drink. — Sheekar (LXX., Sikera ) means intoxicating liquor not made from grapes ( Luke 1:15 ).
he was to be a perpetual Nazarite to God, from his conception to his death; which would have bear impossible if she had drunk wine or strong drink, because a child in the womb and its mother subsist by the same nourishment.Benson's physiological reasoning (mother and child share one nourishment) is his own inference, offered as the reason for the prohibition; the text gives the command without a stated reason.
she is to live in a state of consecration, in order that her child may be consecrated from the very moment of conception.
5For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall touch his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî hin·nāḵ hā·rāh wə·yō·laḏt bên lō- ū·mō·w·rāh ya·‘ă·leh ‘al- rō·šōw kî- han·na·‘ar yih·yeh nə·zîr ’ĕ·lō·hîm min- hab·bā·ṭen wə·hū yā·ḥêl lə·hō·wō·šî·a‘ ’eṯ- yiś·rā·’êl mî·yaḏ pə·liš·tîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
For behold-thee pregnant, and-bearing a-son; and-a-razor shall-not go-up upon his-head, for a-Nazirite-of-God shall-the-boy be from the-womb — and-he shall-begin to-save Israel from-the-hand-of Philistines.”
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There was nothing ascetic about a Nazirite in the early days, as the story of Samson proves ( Jdg 14:10 );Cambridge is reconstructing the history of the institution, and his dating of the Nazirite laws is a scholarly judgment; the observation that Samson feasts in ch. 14 is simply a reading of the text.
The weaknesses of Samson’s own character rendered him unfit to achieve that complete deliverance which was carried out by Samuel.
The promised son was to be a Nazarite all his life long, because he was to begin to deliver Israel out of the power of his foes.
6So the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. His appearance was like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’iš·šāh wat·tā·ḇō wat·tō·mer lə·’î·šāh lê·mōr ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm bā ’ê·lay ū·mar·’ê·hū kə·mar·’êh mal·’aḵ hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm mə·’ōḏ nō·w·rā wə·lō šə·’il·tî·hū ’ê- miz·zeh hū wə·’eṯ- lō- hig·gîḏ lî šə·mōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-came the-woman and-said to-her-husband, saying: “A-man-of-the-God came unto-me, and-his-appearance was-like-the-appearance-of a-messenger-of-the-God, fearsome exceedingly; and-I-asked-him not whence he, and-his-name he-did-not tell me.
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The lustre of his aspect infused such an awe into her, as rendered her incapable of making such inquiry.
The woman therefore imagined the person who appeared to her to have been a prophet, whose majestic appearance, however, had produced the impression that he was a superior being; consequently she had not ventured to ask him either his name or where he came from.
Such is the rule of Eastern manners; the reticence on both sides in the present case is noted as unusual.
7But he said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.’”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·mer lî hin·nāḵ hā·rāh wə·yō·laḏt bên wə·‘at·tāh ’al- tiš·tî ya·yin wə·šê·ḵār wə·’al- tō·ḵə·lî kāl- ṭum·’āh kî- han·na·‘ar yih·yeh nə·zîr ’ĕ·lō·hîm min- hab·be·ṭen ‘aḏ- yō·wm mō·w·ṯōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said to-me: ‘Behold-thee pregnant and-bearing a-son; and-now do-not drink wine or-strong-drink, and-do-not eat any uncleanness, for a-Nazirite-of-God shall-the-boy be from the-womb until the-day of-his-death.’”
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Since Samuel was also a Nazarite, we see that the distress of the people had led mothers to meditate on the old law of life-dedication to God.
nor is it any objection to what is here said, that his hair was cut off before his death, which caused his Nazariteship to cease; since these words are not a prophecy, but a precept;Gill is answering an objection from Judges 16 (Samson's hair was in fact shorn before his death). His distinction between precept and prophecy is a harmonizing move; the honest alternative is that the Nazirite term was broken and then, in his last hour, restored.
8Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·nō·w·aḥ way·ye‘·tar ’el- Yah·weh way·yō·mar bî ’ă·ḏō·w·nāy ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ă·šer šā·laḥ·tā yā·ḇō·w- nā ’ê·lê·nū ‘ō·wḏ wə·yō·w·rê·nū mah- na·‘ă·śeh lan·na·‘ar hay·yūl·lāḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-entreated Manoah unto YHWH and-said: “Oh, my-Lord, the-man-of-the-God whom Thou-didst-send — let-him-come, please, unto-us again, and-teach-us what we-shall-do for-the-boy the-one-to-be-born.”
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Not hesitating or doubting, on account of his wife’s long barrenness, he believed the heavenly message, and looked upon the thing as quite certain,
This is a remarkable instance, indicative of the connection which God has established between prayer and the fulfilment of His promises.
Good men are more careful and desirous to know the duty to be done by them, than to know the events concerning them: duty is ours, events are God's.
9And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yiš·ma‘ bə·qō·wl mā·nō·w·aḥ mal·’aḵ hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yā·ḇō ‘ō·wḏ ’el- hā·’iš·šāh wə·hî yō·wō·še·ḇeṯ baś·śā·ḏeh ’î·šāh ū·mā·nō·w·aḥ ’ên ‘im·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-heard the-God in-the-voice-of Manoah; and-came the-messenger-of-the-God again unto the-woman — and-she sitting in-the-field, and-Manoah her-husband not with-her.
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In response to Manoah’s prayer the divine Messenger comes not to him, but to his wife; the important thing is not ‘what we shall do unto the child,’ but what the mother shall do to ensure the consecration of her offspring.
the angel appeared to the woman again, because she would know him to be the same; whereas had he appeared to Manoah, especially alone, he could not have known whether he was the same or not.Gill's reason and Cambridge's are different and not exclusive; Gill is explaining the narrative logic, Cambridge the theological point. Neither is stated by the text.
10The woman ran quickly to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has reappeared!”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·’î·šāh wat·tā·rāṣ wat·tag·gêḏ wat·tə·ma·hêr wat·tō·mer ’ê·lāw hā·’iš·šāh hin·nêh hā·’îš ’ă·šer- bā ’ê·lāy ḇay·yō·wm nir·’āh ’ê·lay
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-hurried the-woman and-ran and-told her-husband, and-said unto-him: “Behold, has-let-himself-be-seen unto-me the-man who came in-the-day unto-me.”
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Acting in the true spirit of a loving and trustful wife, and showing that she felt that neither angel nor man of God stood before her own husband in the claim to her confidence and obedience.Pulpit's reading of her motive is devotional inference; what the Hebrew reports is three verbs of haste.
It seems that the angel appeared to her twice in one day.
11So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” “I am,” he said.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·nō·w·aḥ way·yā·qām way·yê·leḵ ’a·ḥă·rê ’iš·tōw way·yā·ḇō ’el- hā·’îš way·yō·mer lōw ha·’at·tāh hā·’îš ’ă·šer- dib·bar·tā ’el- hā·’iš·šāh ’ā·nî way·yō·mer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-rose Manoah and-walked after his-wife, and-came unto the-man and-said to-him: “Art-thou the-man who spoke unto the-woman?” And-he-said: “I.”
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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.
He calls him man, because he so seemed, but he was Christ the eternal word, which at his appointed time became man.The Geneva annotator identifies the visitor with the pre-incarnate Christ as a matter of course; it is a Reformed reading of the Old Testament theophanies, argued elsewhere from v. 18, not something v. 11 states.
12Then Manoah asked, “When your words come to pass, what will be the boy’s rule of life and mission?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·nō·w·aḥ way·yō·mer ‘at·tāh ḏə·ḇā·re·ḵā yā·ḇō mah- yih·yeh han·na·‘ar miš·paṭ- ū·ma·‘ă·śê·hū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Manoah: “Now let-come thy-words. What shall-be the-boy's ordinance and-his-work?”
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The literal rendering is given in the margin, What shall be the ordering ( mishpat; LXX., krima ) of the child, and his work?
The original message of the Angel had given information on these two points: (1) how the child was to be brought up, namely, as a Nazarite; (2) what he should do, namely, begin to deliver Israel.
but this the angel chose not to inform him of, since it might have been prejudicial to them, should the Philistines get knowledge that this child would be a judge and saviour of IsraelGill's explanation — that secrecy protected the child from the Philistines — is his own conjecture about motive, offered as such; the text records only the refusal.
13So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife is to do everything I told her.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mal·’aḵ Yah·weh ’el- way·yō·mer mā·nō·w·aḥ hā·’iš·šāh tiš·šā·mêr mik·kōl ’ă·šer- ’ā·mar·tî ’el-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said the-messenger-of-YHWH unto Manoah: “Of-all that I-said unto the-woman let-her-be-on-guard.
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We may observe that the angel gives no answer to Manoah’s question, how the child should be educated, &c., as willing that they should not be solicitous about that at the present, but leave it to the care of Providence
Whilst the child is in her womb, and after the child is born, let him observe the same orders.Poole's ‘him’ extends the regimen past birth to the child himself — an inference beyond the Hebrew, which keeps every verb here feminine and aimed at the mother.
14She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō ṯō·ḵal mik·kōl ’ă·šer- yê·ṣê mig·ge·p̄en hay·ya·yin tê·šət wə·ya·yin wə·šê·ḵār ’al- tō·ḵal wə·ḵāl ṭum·’āh ’al- tiš·mōr kōl ’ă·šer- ṣiw·wî·ṯî·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Of-all that comes-out from-the-vine-of-the-wine she-shall-not eat, and-wine and-strong-drink let-her-not drink, and-any uncleanness let-her-not eat; all that I-commanded-her let-her-keep.”
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Not merely intoxicants, but anything to do with the vine is forbidden, for the reason suggested on Jdg 13:4 ; cf. the prohibition laid upon the Roman Flamen Dialis, who was not allowed even to walk under a trellised vine
The object of this message only seems to have been to give certainty to Manoah.
15“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nā na‘·ṣə·rāh- ’ō·w·ṯāḵ mā·nō·w·aḥ ’el- way·yō·mer mal·’aḵ Yah·weh wə·na·‘ă·śeh gə·ḏî ‘iz·zîm lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Manoah unto the-messenger-of-YHWH: “Let-us-detain thee, please, and-let-us-prepare before-thy-face a-kid-of-goats.”
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The verb gnasoth, like the Greek rezein (LXX., poisin ) and the Latin facere, means either “to do” or “to sacrifice.”
he wished, like Gideon ( Judges 6:18 ), to give a hospitable entertainment to the man who had brought him such joyful tidings
The words might mean offer a kid in thy presence ; but under the circumstances this rendering is not probable.Cambridge decides the ambiguity in favor of hospitality; Barnes and Ellicott hold it open. The Hebrew verb genuinely bears both senses, and the messenger's reply addresses both.
16And the angel of the LORD replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mal·’aḵ Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- mā·nō·w·aḥ ’im- ta‘·ṣə·rê·nî lō- ’ō·ḵal bə·laḥ·me·ḵā wə·’im- ta·‘ă·śeh ‘ō·lāh ta·‘ă·len·nāh Yah·weh kî mā·nō·w·aḥ kî- lō- yā·ḏa‘ hū mal·’aḵ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said the-messenger-of-YHWH unto Manoah: “If thou-detain-me I-will-not eat of-thy-bread; and-if thou-wilt-prepare a-burnt-offering, to-YHWH shalt-thou-send-it-up.” For Manoah did-not know that a-messenger-of-YHWH he.
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The stranger declined the intended hospitality and intimated that if the meat were to be an offering, it must be presented to the Lord
Angels invariably discourage and reprove that “worship of angels” ( Colossians 2:18 ), which was the tendency of early Gnostic sects
Note the advance in religious ideas: in Genesis 18:8 the Angels eat the meal which Abraham provides; in ch. Jdg 6:18 ff. Gideon is allowed to prepare and cook a meal, but it is consumed by fire, not by the Angel; here the very notion of a meal is repelledCambridge reads the three scenes as a developmental sequence in Israel's religion; the same three texts can be read simply as three different divine choices. The observed contrast between them is exact either way.
17Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·nō·w·aḥ way·yō·mer ’el- mal·’aḵ Yah·weh mî šə·me·ḵā kî- wə·ḵib·baḏ·nū·ḵā ḏiḇ·rɛ·ḵå̄ yā·ḇō
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Manoah unto the-messenger-of-YHWH: “Who is-thy-name? For-when comes thy-word, we-will-honor-thee.”
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The phrase is very peculiar, literally, Who is thy name? as if he had been going to say, Who art thou? and then changed the form to is thy name.
Do thee honor - If applied to a man, it would be by gifts, such for instance as Balak promised to the prophet Balaam Numbers 22:17
This was the reason why he asked after his name. כּבּד, to honour by presents, so as to show one's self grateful (see Numbers 22:17 , Numbers 22:37 ; Numbers 24:11 ).
18“Why do you ask my name,” said the angel of the LORD, “since it is beyond comprehension?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lām·māh zeh tiš·’al liš·mî way·yō·mer mal·’aḵ Yah·weh lō wə·hū- p̄ɛ·li
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-him the-messenger-of-YHWH: “Why this dost-thou-ask for-my-name? — and-it is Wonderful.”
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or, wonderful , such as thou canst not comprehend; my nature or essence (which is oft signified by name in Scripture) is incomprehensible. This shows that this was the Angel of the covenant, the Son of God.Poole moves from a lexical claim (the word means wonderful) to a Christological one (therefore this is the Son of God). The first is a fact about H6383; the second is his inference, and a widely-held one.
wonderful ] hard to be understood, not secret (marg.): prophets use the word to describe God’s dealings with His people, Exodus 15:11 ; Isaiah 25:1 ; Isaiah 29:14 etc. The divine Name is inscrutable, like the divine action, Psalm 139:6 .
It is to be understood in an absolute sense, - "absolutely and supremely wonderful" (Seb. Schmidt), - as a predicate belonging to God alone (compare the term "Wonderful" in Isaiah 9:6 )
19Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mā·nō·w·aḥ ’eṯ- way·yiq·qaḥ gə·ḏî hā·‘iz·zîm wə·’eṯ- ham·min·ḥāh way·ya·‘al ‘al- haṣ·ṣūr Yah·weh ū·mā·nō·w·aḥ wə·’iš·tōw rō·’îm la·‘ă·śō·wṯ ū·map̄·li
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-took Manoah the-kid-of-the-goats and-the-grain-offering and-sent-it-up upon the-rock to-YHWH — and-doing-wonderfully to-do, and-Manoah and-his-wife looking-on.
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The presence and command of the angel being a sufficient warrant for the offering of sacrifice by a person who was no priest, and in a place otherwise forbidden.
The instance in which he did wondrously was, as Kimchi observes, by bringing fire out of the rock, which consumed the flesh of the kid, and the meat offeringGill reports Kimchi's and Josephus's reconstruction (fire out of the rock, a touch of the staff). The Hebrew of v. 19 does not say how the fire came; v. 20 says only that the flame went up from the altar.
Such an altar, hewn out of the living rock and reached by steps leading to a platform, actually exists near Ṣar‘a (Zorah), and may have been in the writer’s mindThe rock-altar near Ṣar‘a is a real archaeological find; that this verse refers to it is Cambridge's suggestion, and he is careful to mark the cup-marks' purpose as uncertain.
20When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî hal·la·haḇ ḇa·‘ă·lō·wṯ mê·‘al ham·miz·bê·aḥ haš·šā·may·māh mal·’aḵ- Yah·weh way·ya·‘al ham·miz·bê·aḥ bə·la·haḇ ū·mā·nō·w·aḥ wə·’iš·tōw rō·’îm way·yip·pə·lū ‘al- pə·nê·hem ’ā·rə·ṣāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass, when-went-up the-flame from-upon the-altar heavenward, that-ascended the-messenger-of-YHWH in-the-flame-of the-altar; and-Manoah and-his-wife looking-on, and-they-fell upon their-faces to-the-ground.
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The angel ascended in the flame, to manifest his nature and essence to be spiritual, because not capable of hurt by the fire; and celestial.
in the Flame of the altar ] as though it were His native element, Exodus 3:2 . The sign may well have suggested a more spiritual view of Jehovah’s nature (Kittel l.c.).
We may apply this to Christ's sacrifice of himself for us; he ascended in the flame of his own offering, for by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, Heb 9:12.Henry is openly applying, not exegeting: he says “we may apply this.” The typology is his, and it is the oldest Christian use of this scene.
21And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mal·’aḵ Yah·weh wə·lō- lə·hê·rā·’ōh yā·sap̄ ‘ō·wḏ ’el- mā·nō·w·aḥ wə·’el- ’iš·tōw ’āz mā·nō·w·aḥ yā·ḏa‘ kî- hū mal·’aḵ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-added-not the-messenger-of-YHWH again to-let-himself-be-seen unto Manoah and-unto his-wife. Then Manoah knew that a-messenger-of-YHWH he.
Where the English smooths the original
22“We are going to die,” he said to his wife, “for we have seen God!”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·wṯ nā·mūṯ mā·nō·w·aḥ way·yō·mer ’el- ’iš·tōw kî rā·’î·nū ’ĕ·lō·hîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Manoah unto his-wife: “Dying we-shall-die, for God we-have-seen.”
Where the English smooths the original
As seeing Him who is invisible; by seeing a manifestation of Him in human form, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live” ( Exodus 33:20 ).
lit. for elohim we have seen , i.e. a supernatural being; cf. 1 Samuel 28:13 and prob. Genesis 32:30 ; God is too definite.Cambridge's caution is lexical, not sceptical: the anarthrous elohim can denote a supernatural being generally. Gill and Poole read it as the full divine name and build their Christology on it.
their notion was, that an appearance of God to them was death, and were surprised when it did not follow, Genesis 32:30 .
23But his wife replied, “If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’iš·tōw wat·tō·mer lōw lū Yah·weh ḥā·p̄êṣ la·hă·mî·ṯê·nū lō- lā·qaḥ ‘ō·lāh ū·min·ḥāh mî·yā·ḏê·nū wə·lō her·’ā·nū ’eṯ- kāl- ’êl·leh hiš·mî·‘ā·nū wə·ḵā·‘êṯ lō kā·zōṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-him his-wife: “If YHWH had-delighted to-put-us-to-death, He-would-not have-taken from-our-hand a-burnt-offering and-a-grain-offering; and-He-would-not have-shown-us all these, and-about-this-time He-would-not have-let-us-hear such-as-this.”
Where the English smooths the original
The woman's faith saw more clearly than the man's fear. With the acceptance of the sacrifice the conscience was cleared from guilt.
Learn to reason as Manoah's wife; If God designed me to perish under his wrath, he would not give me tokens of his favour.
The reasoning of Manoah’s wife here is very just, and shows her to have been a woman of good understanding.
24So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’iš·šāh wat·tê·leḏ bên wat·tiq·rā ’eṯ- šə·mōw šim·šō·wn han·na·‘ar way·yiḡ·dal Yah·weh way·ḇā·rə·ḵê·hū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-bore the-woman a-son, and-called his-name Samson; and-grew the-boy, and-blessed-him YHWH.
Where the English smooths the original
The form implies that the word is either an adjective or a diminutive, ‘solar’ or ‘little sun,’ from shemesh = ‘sun.’
The Rabbis say that he was “named after the name of God, who is called sun and shield of Israel” ( Psalm 84:12 ).Ellicott reports the rabbinic derivation without endorsing it, and immediately offers competing etymologies from Josephus, Jerome and Ewald.
Christ is the mighty God, and mighty Saviour, the sun of righteousness, the light of the world, and the deliverer of his people from darkness of calamity and distressGill builds a typology on an etymology that the other voices dispute. The typological pattern he draws (barren mother, angelic annunciation, solitary deliverer) does not depend on the etymology; the wordplay does.
25And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
rū·aḥ Yah·weh wat·tā·ḥel lə·p̄a·‘ă·mōw bə·ma·ḥă·nêh- ḏān bên ṣā·rə·‘āh ū·ḇên ’eš·tā·’ōl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-began the-Spirit-of-YHWH to-thrust-him in-Mahaneh-Dan, between Zorah and-between Eshtaol.
Where the English smooths the original
Began to move him. —Literally, to agitate or thrust him ( paham, Genesis 41:8 ; Daniel 2:1 ). The word implies vehement and overwhelming impulses to noble deeds
The superhuman power of Jehovah began to stir him to daring feats against the Philistines; cf. St Mark 1:12 ‘the Spirit driveth him forth.’
Samson drank no wine or strong drink, yet excelled in strength and courage, for he had the Spirit of God moving him; therefore be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.Henry moves from Samson to Ephesians 5:18 as application; the connection between the Nazirite abstinence and the Spirit's filling is his homiletic pairing, not a claim of the Hebrew text.
denoting the operation of the Spirit of God within him, which took possession of him suddenly, and impelled him to put forth supernatural powers.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a finite verb, not an adverb: וַיֹּסִפוּ (yâçaph, H3254) — Israel added to do the evil. K&D names it “the standing formula,” set here as the introduction to Samson's life; Cambridge, reading as a source critic, observes that the compiler applies the formula of Judges 3:7 even though “no hostile invasion is mentioned” in chs. 13–16, and that the Philistine domination in fact ran far past forty years. Benson calls this “the longest oppression which the Israelites ever sustained.” Against that, one man from Zorah with a barren wife. Ellicott hears the father's name as the era's own longing: Manoah means rest, and the name “perhaps expressed the yearning of the Israelites in these troubled days.” ⚙ Two clocks are running from v. 1: the forty years of the hand of the Philistines, and the unnumbered years of a womb that has borne nothing. The chapter will not resolve either. It will only put a boy between them.
The messenger comes to her, not to her husband; Manoah prays for a second visit and God sends it — to her again, in the field, “but her husband Manoah was not with her” (v. 9). Cambridge states the point without sentiment: “the important thing is not ‘what we shall do unto the child,’ but what the mother shall do to ensure the consecration of her offspring.” Gill offers a different and more practical reason — the angel returned to the woman so that she could recognize him as the same. Both may stand. ⚙ What is certain is the grammar: every imperative of abstinence in vv. 4, 13 and 14 is feminine. K&D draws the theological weight of it: “in order that he might be so, his mother was to share in the renunciations of the Nazarite vow during the time of her pregnancy.” Note also that she is a careful witness. In v. 4 she is told not to eat anything ṭāmêʼ (adjective); in v. 7 she reports it as ṭumʼâh (abstract noun) — and in v. 14 the angel adopts her noun. The wife of Manoah is the only person in this chapter whose words are quoted back to her approvingly by heaven.
Manoah asks twice and is answered neither time as he asked. First, מִשְׁפַּט and מַעֲשֵׂהוּ (v. 12) — Ellicott gives the literal margin: “What shall be the ordering (mishpat; LXX., krima) of the child, and his work?” Barnes sees the two points precisely: how the child is to be brought up, and what he shall do. The angel answers only the first. Gill guesses at a reason — it would have been “prejudicial to them, should the Philistines get knowledge that this child would be a judge and saviour of Israel” — which is speculation, honestly labeled. Benson's reading is quieter and better: the future was left “to the care of Providence.” Then the second question, the name (v. 17), and the refusal: פֶלִאי (pilʼîy, H6383). Pulpit corrects the AV: the word “does not mean secret, but wonderful.” K&D presses further — it is “a predicate belonging to God alone (compare the term ‘Wonderful’ in Isaiah 9:6),” and is not to be softened into “hard to utter.” Cambridge supplies the grammar of the refusal: “to reveal the name is to reveal the essential nature and attributes,” and adds the cross-reference that the Verifier independently confirms — “the divine Name is inscrutable, like the divine action, Psalm 139:6.” H6383 occurs in exactly two verses in the canon: this one and that one.
Manoah offers on a צוּר (a cliff, a sharp rock) and the text says, with a participle of the root pâlâʼ that just refused to give a name, וּמַפְלִא לַעֲשׂוֹת — doing-wonderfully He did. Ellicott catches the echo: “Did wonderously. —With a reference to the word pelî in the previous verse.” Cambridge notes that the text here is “hardly grammatical” and that the EV must insert “the angel” to make sense of it — an honest textual scar. Then the flame goes up and the messenger goes up in it (ʻâlâh, the very verb forbidden to the razor in v. 5), and the two of them fall on their faces. Manoah concludes death: “ʼĕlōhîm we have seen.” His wife concludes life, and her argument is a piece of formal reasoning from evidence: He received the offering; He showed us all this; He told us such things — therefore He does not mean to kill us. Pulpit: “The woman's faith saw more clearly than the man's fear.” Henry turns it into a rule: “If God designed me to perish under his wrath, he would not give me tokens of his favour.” ⚙ Hers is the only argument in the chapter, and it is built entirely out of an accepted sacrifice.
She bears a son and she names him — Ellicott notes the mother naming, comparing Genesis 29:32–35 and Luke 1:60. The etymology is contested and the commentators say so: Josephus and K&D argue for “strong/daring”; Cambridge derives it from shemesh, “solar” or “little sun,” and points out that Beth-shemesh, the sun's house, lies less than two miles from Zorah; Pulpit lists a further possibility from the Aramaic shemash, to minister. Gill takes all the senses and reads them typologically. Then the last verse: the Spirit of YHWH וַתָּחֶל — began (H2490, the same root as the angel's “he shall begin” in v. 5) — לְפַעֲמוֹ, to thrust him (pâʻam, H6470, a word the Verifier finds in only five verses; Ellicott: “to agitate or thrust him,” Luther's “fing an ihn zu treiben”). ⚙ The chapter that began with Israel adding evil ends with God beginning a rescue, and the verb for what the Spirit does to Samson is elsewhere used of what a dream does to Pharaoh and to Nebuchadnezzar: it disturbs a man in his own body until he cannot rest.
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Judges 13 is a chapter about a name withheld and a consecration imposed, and it is built on one hinge word: he shall begin to save. God announces a deliverer and, in the same sentence, caps him. Everything that follows honors that cap. The mother is told what to abstain from and not what her son will accomplish. Manoah asks what the boy's work will be and receives instructions about his mother's diet. He asks the visitor's name and is told the name is Wonderful — a word (H6383) that occurs in only one other verse in Scripture, where the psalmist says such knowledge is too high for him. The chapter systematically refuses to hand over the two things a man most wants when God promises him something: the identity of the Giver, and the shape of the outcome. What it does hand over is a rule for the body and a fire on a rock. ⚙ I take the barren womb and the withheld name to be the same mercy in two forms: in both, Israel is required to receive rather than to secure. And I take the wife's argument in v. 23 to be the chapter's own hermeneutic, and a durable one — reason forward from the sacrifice God has accepted, not backward from the fear you happen to feel. Manoah's fear was not irrational; it was simply less informed than the altar in front of him. Where I would hold back from some of the voices gathered here: the text itself never calls Samson a type of Christ, and Hebrews 11:32 names him among the faithful, not among the figures. The resemblances Gill lists are real; what they establish is a pattern of how God saves — by a promised son, from a closed womb, under a consecration he did not choose — and a pattern is not a prophecy. Read it as the pattern, and the New Testament birth narratives will do the rest.
The chapter withholds the Name and withholds the outcome, and gives instead a rule for the body and a fire on a rock. (⚙ synthesis — not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
מוֹרָה (môwrâh, H4177, “razor”) is one of the rarest nouns in the canon: the Verifier finds it in three verses only. Two of them are Samson's. Here the angel says “no razor shall go up upon his head, for a Nazirite-of-God shall the boy be from the womb” (13:5); at Judges 16:17 Samson says the same three words — razor, Nazirite, womb — to a woman who is being paid to hear them. The Verifier confirms all three shared lexemes. ⚙ The sentence that constitutes him is the sentence he sells. Cambridge notes that the unshorn hair “seems to have been the one essential characteristic” of this kind of consecration; that is exactly what makes 16:17 a self-erasure rather than a haircut.
Judges 16:17
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4177 môwrâh (rare — in 3 vv canon-wide), H5139 nâzîyr (in 16 vv), H990 beṭen (in 72 vv). Judges 16:17 reproduces the angel's clause of 13:5 inside the book itself; the rare lexeme plus the near-verbatim clause justifies the verbal tier.
The angel refuses his name with a single adjective: פֶלִאי (pilʼîy, H6383). The Verifier finds the lexeme in exactly two verses in the whole canon — Judges 13:18 and Psalm 139:6, where the psalmist says such knowledge is too wonderful for him, too high, he cannot attain to it. Cambridge makes the same connection independently: “The divine Name is inscrutable, like the divine action, Psalm 139:6.” ⚙ Manoah's question and the psalmist's confession are the same discovery from opposite ends — one man asking and refused, one man not asking because he already knows the answer is out of reach. Pulpit adds the practical consequence: the name was one which, as Paul puts it, it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Psalm 139:6
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6383 pilʼîy — in 2 vv canon-wide, i.e. these two verses are its entire attestation. This is a rare-lexeme verbal link, NOT a quotation: neither verse cites the other, and no literary dependence is claimed.
The third and last occurrence of מוֹרָה (H4177) is 1 Samuel 1:11, where Hannah — also barren, also visited at a sanctuary, also given a son who will judge Israel — vows of her own accord what the angel here imposes without asking: no razor shall come upon his head. Cambridge observes that besides Samson, “the only other and not quite certain example” of a lifelong Nazirite is Samuel, and that he is not called one until Sirach 46:13. Ellicott draws the inference the two passages invite: “the distress of the people had led mothers to meditate on the old law of life-dedication to God.” ⚙ The difference is the whole point: Hannah vows her son to God; Samson's mother is told. One is consecration offered, the other consecration decreed.
1 Samuel 1:11
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4177 môwrâh — in 3 vv canon-wide (Judges 13:5; Judges 16:17; 1 Samuel 1:11). Rare shared lexeme in a shared formula (“no razor upon his head”); no citation is claimed in either direction.
לְפַעֲמוֹ (pâʻam, H6470) in 13:25 is not a gentle stirring. The Verifier finds the lexeme in only five verses; the others are Genesis 41:8 (Pharaoh's spirit was troubled) and Daniel 2:1, 2:3 (Nebuchadnezzar's spirit was troubled and his sleep left him) — each of them, like this verse, pairing pâʻam with רוּחַ (H7307). Ellicott cites both passages under this word and glosses it “to agitate or thrust him”; Cambridge notes the passive is rendered “was troubled” at Genesis 41:8 and Psalm 77:4, and compares Mark 1:12, “the Spirit driveth him forth.” ⚙ What unsettles a pagan king from outside, in a dream he cannot read, unsettles Samson from inside, by the Spirit of YHWH. The tier is kept at structural rather than verbal deliberately: the lexeme is genuinely rare, but the direction of the action is opposite and no literary dependence is in view.
Genesis 41:8 · Daniel 2:1 · Daniel 2:3
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6470 pâʻam (rare — in 5 vv) and H7307 rûwach (in 348 vv). The rare lexeme is real and confirmed, but the usage is inverted (divine impulse vs. a troubled spirit), so the link is recorded as a shared motif of agitation, deliberately downgraded from verbal.
The unit is pinned to a two-town corridor: Zorah (H6881) and Eshtaol (H847), named together at 13:2 and 13:25 and shared with Joshua 15:33, Joshua 19:41, Judges 18:2 and 18:8 — the Verifier confirms the lexemes in each. Cambridge places Zorah at the modern Ṣar‘a, 15 miles west of Jerusalem, directly opposite Beth-shemesh, and notes that the situation “exposed it to Philistine influences”; Pulpit observes that the town is assigned to Dan in Joshua 19:41 and to Judah in Joshua 15:33, probably because the tribal boundary ran through it. Judges 16:31 closes the circle: Samson is buried “between Zorah and Eshtaol,” in the burying place of Manoah his father, and shares H4495 and H6881 with this unit. ⚙ The geography is the plot. A man consecrated to separation is born on the one seam where Israel and Philistia touch, and is buried on it — the whole cycle happens inside a corridor a few miles wide.
Judges 16:31 · Judges 18:2 · Judges 18:8 · Joshua 15:33 · Joshua 19:41
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6881 Tsorʻâh (in 10 vv), H847 ʼEshtâʼôl (in 7 vv), H4495 Mânôwach (in 14 vv), H1839 Dânîy (in 5 vv), H4940 mishpâchâh (in 224 vv). Real shared toponyms and clan terms binding the Samson narrative to the Danite material and to the Joshua town-lists; no quotation is claimed.
עֲקָרָה (ʻâqâr, H6135) links this opening to Genesis 25:21, where Isaac entreats YHWH for Rebekah “because she was barren,” and she conceives (hârâh, H2029) — both lexemes confirmed by the Verifier; and the verb of Isaac's entreaty there is ʻâthar, the same rare word used of Manoah's prayer in 13:8. Barnes lists the pattern plainly: Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, John the Baptist. Cambridge: “The child in such cases was a special gift of God, and marked out for a special career.” Geneva reads it as doctrine — the deliverance “came only from God, and not by man's power.” ⚙ The barrenness is the argument. Israel cannot produce its own deliverer any more than this woman can produce a child.
Genesis 25:21 · Genesis 11:30 · 1 Samuel 1:2
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6135 ʻâqâr (in 11 vv) and H2029 hârâh (in 42 vv) with Genesis 25:21. Genesis 11:30 and 1 Samuel 1:2 are added on the commentators' own citation (Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge), not on Verifier-computed bases, and carry no verbal claim.
Ellicott states it flatly at 13:2: “Many of the phrases here used occur in Luke 1:7; 1:11; 1:15; 1:31; 2:23.” Cambridge notes that the Angel's appearance betokens the announcement of a deliverer “cf. Luke 1:11; 1:15 ff., 1:31 ff.”; Pulpit sets the promise beside Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth and the blessed Virgin; Ellicott at 13:4 points out that the LXX's sikera for שֵׁכָר is the very word standing in Luke 1:15 of John. ⚙ The structure repeats point for point: an aged or barren wife, an angelic annunciation, an abstinence imposed before birth, a son who prepares rather than completes the deliverance. This is a Greek-to-Hebrew link, so no shared Strong's number exists and none is claimed — the basis is structural, and it is carried by the LXX vocabulary and by the annunciation form, not by lexical identity.
Luke 1:7 · Luke 1:13-15 · Luke 1:31
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible in principle, so no verbal tier is available. Basis is the shared annunciation form (barren wife, angelic promise, pre-natal abstinence, forerunner-deliverer), recorded by Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit at these verses, plus the LXX rendering sikera for H7941 shêkâr standing in Luke 1:15.
מַחֲנֵה־דָן (H4265) occurs in exactly two verses: Judges 13:25, where it lies “between Zorah and Eshtaol,” and Judges 18:12, where it is placed in Judah, behind Kiriath-jearim, on the Danite migrants' march north. The Verifier records the shared lexeme, so the verbal tie is real; what is contested is whether the two verses name the same ground. Cambridge states the difficulty plainly — here the site “lies in the heart of the Danite settlements,” whereas a temporary encampment outside the district is what the name would naturally describe — and since it is unlikely there were two Dan's Camps in one small region, he concludes “there is something wrong about the name here” and proposes reading Manahath-dan (after S. A. Cook), tying it to the Manahathites of Zorah in 1 Chronicles 2:52–54. Ellicott and Barnes simply transliterate and let the discrepancy stand; Poole and Gill suggest the Danite expedition of ch. 18, though narrated later, happened earlier; K&D admits “the situation cannot be determined precisely.” ⚙ Flagged rather than asserted: the lexeme is shared and rare, the identification of the two sites is not established, and Cambridge's emendation has no manuscript support whatever — it is a conjecture repairing a difficulty, and should be used as nothing more.
Judges 18:12 · Judges 18:11 · 1 Chronicles 2:52-54
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4265 Machănêh-Dân — in 2 vv canon-wide (Judges 13:25; Judges 18:12), so the lexical link is certain. FLAGGED because the geographical identification behind it is disputed in the sources: Judges 18:12 locates the camp in Judah behind Kiriath-jearim, this verse between Zorah and Eshtaol. Cambridge proposes emending to Manahath-dan (1 Chronicles 2:52-54) — an unattested conjecture, not a variant reading. Verify before relying on either location.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The named voices here are unusually united. Poole: the angel of the LORD is “the Son of God, oft so called in the Old Testament, as may be gathered from Judges 13:18, yet distinguished from the Lord, because he appeared here as it were in the form of a servant.” Benson says the same and reads pilʼîy against Isaiah 9:6, “where it is applied to Christ, the wonderful child born.” Gill calls him “the uncreated one, the Angel of the covenant, the Son and Word of God.” Geneva glosses v. 11: “He calls him man, because he so seemed, but he was Christ the eternal word, which at his appointed time became man.” JFB names him “the messenger of the covenant.” K&D stops one step short and is the more careful witness: pilʼîy is “a predicate belonging to God alone (compare the term ‘Wonderful’ in Isaiah 9:6).” ⚙ Two honest limits. First, Isaiah 9:6 uses פֶּלֶא (H6382), a cognate of the same root, not the identical lexeme H6383, and the Verifier did not return Isaiah 9:6 among the candidate bases — the link is by root and by predicate, which is enough to notice and not enough to call verbal. Second, the text's own claim is narrower than the commentators': it says the messenger receives a burnt offering, refuses to be fed, ascends in the flame, and bears a name that belongs to God alone. That is what must be accounted for.
Judges 13:18 · Isaiah 9:6 · Judges 6:11-22 · Exodus 3:2
Gill sets the type out in full at 13:5: Samson “was a type of Christ, who was sanctified by the Lord, separated from sinners, and called a ‘Nazarene’: was born of a virgin, as Samson was of a barren woman, and his birth foretold by an angel as this”; and at the same verse he marks the decisive asymmetry — “in this his antitype exceeds him, who is the author of the complete salvation of his people out of the hands of all their enemies,” yet resembles him in that “what he did he did himself alone; not at the head of an army,” citing Isaiah 63:5. At 13:24 Gill reads even the name both ways: “Christ is the mighty God, and mighty Saviour, the sun of righteousness, the light of the world, and the deliverer of his people from darkness of calamity and distress.” Ellicott, Benson, Pulpit and Poole all independently stress the limit built into the promise — Samson only begins. ⚙ The redemptive-historical point is carried by that one Hifil verb, יָחֵל (H2490): God announces a deliverer and, in the same breath, declares him partial. Judges is a book of deliverers who need delivering, and this chapter is the only one that says so in advance. The honest caveat: the New Testament never types Samson on Christ; Hebrews 11:32 lists him among those who through faith wrought righteousness. What Scripture supplies is the pattern — a promised son, a closed womb, a consecration not chosen — and the pattern is taken up explicitly at Luke 1.
Judges 13:5 · Isaiah 63:5 · Hebrews 11:32 · Luke 1:31
Manoah offers a kid and a minchâh on a rock; the flame goes up, and the messenger goes up in the flame (v. 20) — by the verb ʻâlâh (H5927), the same verb the chapter forbade to the razor in v. 5 and used of sending the offering up in v. 19. Henry makes the application, and it is the oldest kind of Christian reading of a burnt offering: “We may apply this to Christ's sacrifice of himself for us; he ascended in the flame of his own offering, for by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, Heb 9:12.” Cambridge, from an entirely different school, notices the same theological weight in the flame — the offering “must be consumed by fire which rises to the heaven where He dwells,” and the sign “may well have suggested a more spiritual view of Jehovah's nature.” Poole: he ascended “to manifest his nature and essence to be spiritual.” ⚙ Then the wife's argument in v. 23 is built on the accepted offering and nothing else: He received it, therefore He does not mean to kill us. That is the logic of Romans 5 and Hebrews 9 in its earliest domestic form — a conclusion about God's intent drawn from a sacrifice He has already taken. Marked as a figural reading: Henry's application is homiletic and he says so, and the Hebrew makes no claim beyond the fire and the ascent.
Judges 13:19-23 · Hebrews 9:12 · Leviticus 9:24
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. Text. Three places are genuinely uncertain and the voices say so. (1) At 13:6 the Masoretic text reads “and I asked him not whence he was”; Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all record that the LXX (cod. A) and the Vulgate omit the negative, yielding “I asked him, but he did not tell me.” The negative is retained here as the harder reading. (2) At 13:19 Cambridge states that “as it stands the text is hardly grammatical,” that the words “the angel” are inserted by the English versions to make sense of it, and that LXX cod. A and the Vulgate read instead “unto the LORD who doeth wondrously.” The literal rendering above follows the Masoretic participle without inserting a subject. (3) At 13:18 there is a Kethibh/Qere: K&D notes the Kethibh פלאי against the Qere פלי, both from the root pâlâʼ; nothing in the sense turns on it. At 13:8 the participle הַיּוּלָּד likewise has a Qere.
Interlinear ordering. The word indices used in the notes follow the Berean interlinear, which is sequenced to the English rather than strictly to the Hebrew — so at 13:1 the divine name appears at two indices, at 13:3 “the angel of the LORD” is listed before the verb, and at 13:10 the verbs of running and telling are ordered by the English clause. Where a note depends on Hebrew word order, the literal line above reflects the Hebrew, not the index sequence.
Sources. Cambridge's entries at 13:1, 13:5 and 13:19 are capped in the brief, and 13:5 also carries a truncated final clause on the meaning of “begin”; the excerpts quoted are within the text supplied. Cambridge writes from a documentary-critical position (a “Dtc. compiler,” chs. 13–16 earlier than ch. 13, the Nazirite law of Numbers 6 a later development) that the other ten voices do not share; his historical and archaeological data (the Purasati, the rock-altar near Ṣar‘a, the Amarna reference to Zorah) are separable from those judgments and are cited as data.
What is uncertain. The chronology of the forty years is disputed on the page: Ellicott and K&D reckon to the victory of Ebenezer, Benson, Poole and Gill from before Abdon's death or from Jephthah's; Cambridge holds the domination outlasted forty years altogether. No reconciliation is offered here. The etymology of “Samson” is genuinely unsettled — K&D and Josephus for “strong/daring,” Cambridge and Jerome for “sun/solar,” Pulpit adding a possible Aramaic “minister”; all three are reported, none adopted. The identification of the malʼâk YHWH as the pre-incarnate Son is an interpretation held by Poole, Benson, Gill, Geneva and JFB and stated more cautiously by K&D; it is recorded as their reading, marked ancient and widely-held, and not asserted as the text's own vocabulary. Cambridge's Manahath-dan for Mahaneh-Dan at 13:25 is a scholar's conjecture with no manuscript support and is flagged inside the thread that uses it.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)