1And the Israelites once more did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and He gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
2And there was a man from Zorah from the clan of the Danite, and his name was Manoah. And his woman was barren, she had born no child. 3And a messenger of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Look, pray, you are barren and have born no child. But you shall conceive and bear a son. 4And now, guard yourself, pray, and drink no wine or strong drink and eat no unclean thing. 5For you are about to conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall touch his head, for the lad shall be a nazirite of God from the womb. And he shall begin to rescue Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6And the woman came and said to her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of a messenger of God, very fearsome. And I did not ask him from where he was, and his name he did not tell me. 7And he said to me, ‘You are about to conceive and bear a son. And now, drink no wine or strong drink and eat no unclean thing, for the lad shall be a nazirite of God from the womb till his dying day.’” 8And Manoah entreated the LORD and said, “Please, my Master, the man of God whom you sent, let him, pray, come again to us and teach us what we should do for the lad who is to be born.” 9And God heeded Manoah’s voice, and the messenger of God came again to the woman, when she was sitting in the field and Manoah her husband was not with her. 10And the woman hurried and ran and told her husband and said to him, “Look, the man that came to me during the day has appeared to me.” 11And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12And Manoah said, “Now, may your word come true! What shall be the conduct of the lad and his acts?” 13And the LORD’s messenger said to Manoah, “From all that I said to the woman she must guard herself. 14From all that comes from the vine she shall not eat, and wine and strong drink she shall not drink, and no unclean thing shall she eat. All that I charged her she must keep.” 15And Manoah said to the LORD’s messenger, “Let us detain you, pray, and we shall prepare a kid for you.” 16And the LORD’s messenger said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I cannot eat of your food, and if you prepare a burnt offering, to the LORD you shall offer it up.” For Manoah did not know that he was a messenger of the LORD. 17And Manoah said to the LORD’s messenger, “What is your name? When your word comes true, we shall honor you.” 18And the LORD’s messenger said to him, “Why do you ask my name when it is a mystery?” 19And Manoah took the kid and the grain offering and offered them up on a rock to the LORD, and the other was performing a wonder, with Manoah and his woman watching. 20And it happened when the flame went up from the altar to the heavens, that the LORD’s messenger went up in the flame of the altar, with Manoah and his woman watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21And the LORD’s messenger appeared no more to Manoah and to his woman. Then Manoah knew that he was a messenger of the LORD. 22And Manoah said to his woman, “We are doomed to die, for we have seen God.” 23And his woman said to him, “Had the LORD desired to put us to death, He would not have taken from our hand burnt offering and grain offering, nor would He have shown us all these things and at this time instructed us in this manner.” 24And the woman bore a son, and she called his name Samson, and the lad grew up, and the LORD blessed him. 25And the spirit of the LORD began to drive him in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
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2. his woman was barren. The Hebrew noun ʾishah, like femme in French, can mean either “woman” or “wife.” This translation renders it as “woman” throughout the chapter because it is a thematic key word that sets the stage for the story of Samson and his involvement with women. Indeed, the reason that she is not given a name, in contrast to her husband, may be to enable the narrator to repeat the word “woman” again and again in this episode.
his woman was barren, she had born no child. These words signal the inception of the annunciation type-scene. Of all the Judges, only Samson is accorded this scene, which, as we shall see, has several features that distinguish it from the other annunciations.
4. strong drink. The indication in verse 14 that specifically products of the vine are prohibited is evidence that this is liquor, sheikhar, derived from grapes, a form of grappa.
5. touch his head. Literally, “go up on his head.”
nazirite. The nazirite (see Numbers 6) is a person who takes on himself special vows of abstinence. The noun derives from a verbal stem that means to be separated or set apart.
he shall begin to rescue Israel. The divine messenger chooses his words carefully: any victory Samson achieves over the Philistines will be incomplete.
6. A man of God. Since he appears to her in human form, however “fearsome,” she has no reason to assume that he is a divine being, though he might seem to resemble one.
7. drink no wine or strong drink. Since the fetus feeds from the mother, the clear implication is that this prohibition, which begins in her pregnancy, will also be obligatory for the future nazirite. Nazirites in general refrain from alcoholic beverages. It is noteworthy that she says nothing about the ban on cutting the hair, which is another general practice for nazirites.
till his dying day. For the divine messenger’s “will begin to rescue Israel,” she substitutes this phrase, ominously introducing the idea of Samson’s death into the story before he is even conceived.
9. And God heeded Manoah’s voice, and the messenger of God came again to the woman. In fact, God does not send a response to the two of them (“come again to us”) as Manoah asked but only to the woman who is alone in the field. This version of the annunciation type-scene systematically sidelines the man, who really doesn’t grasp what is going on.
10. during the day. This slightly obscure phrase evidently refers to the day before.
12. his acts. The Hebrew uses a singular.
13. From all that I said to the woman she must guard herself. There is a little note of annoyance in these words: after all, I already explained to your wife what should be done about the child, and so why are you being so obtuse as to ask me to repeat myself? As a matter of fact, the celestial messenger does not directly answer Manoah’s question about what will be the conduct of the child because everything he says pertains to the restrictions that the future mother must observe. It is probably implied that all these restrictions must be followed by the son as well. The most striking aspect of this response to Manoah is a crucial omission: no word is said about not cutting the hair, as though this were a secret shared between the divine messenger and the woman that neither will entrust to Manoah. In the ensuing story, it is the secret of Samson’s indomitable strength that, when revealed to a woman, brings about his downfall.
16. I cannot eat of your food. The word for “food” here is literally “bread,” but because the proffered meal is kid’s meat, the literal translation could be confusing. The alimentary ground rules, one should note, for divine beings have changed: in Genesis 18, God and His two supernatural companions partake of the feast that Abraham prepares for them.
For Manoah did not know. Even at this late point in the story, he still doesn’t get it. And thus he goes on to ask for the name of the mysterious stranger, so that after the birth of the child he can find a way to pay honor to the bearer of the good tidings.
18. a mystery. The Hebrew root of this term is the same as the verb for performing a wonder in the next verse.
19. the other. The Hebrew simply says “he.” This translation is meant to avoid the erroneous notion that it is Manoah who is performing the wonder.
20. the LORD’s messenger went up in the flame of the altar. Of all the annunciation scenes, only here does the bringer of the annunciation disappear into the heavens in a column of flame. That pyrotechnic exit of course points to the supernatural character of the child to be born, but, even more strategically, it announces the motif of fire that will recur in Samson’s story. At the end, even when fire is not present either literally or in the figurative language of the story, it remains as a powerful analogue for Samson, the hero who blindly sows destruction, like fire.
21. And the LORD’s messenger appeared no more. This clause could equally mean that he disappeared from their sight and that he did not again come to them.
Then Manoah knew. It takes all this to get him finally to recognize the real identity of the bearer of the tidings.
23. Had the LORD desired to put us to death, He would not have taken from our hand burnt offering and grain offering, nor would He have shown us all these things. As her husband quails in terror, she calmly points out to him with impeccable logic that God could scarcely have intended to kill them (for beholding a divine creature) if He went to all the trouble of conveying to them instructions about their promised son. The annunciation type-scene is fundamentally matriarchal, the revelations being vouchsafed to the future mother, but here we are given a virtually satiric version of the annunciation, highlighting male obtuseness and the good sense of the woman. This scene thus becomes a perfect prelude to the story of a brawny male hero whose lapses of judgment in regard to women entangle him in repeated difficulties and ultimately destroy him.
24. Samson. Alhough the –on suffix of the Hebrew Shimshon is used for quite a few biblical names, it could also be related to ʾon, “potency,” making the name suggest “sun of potency.” Some scholars have conjectured that behind this figure there might be traditions about a solar deity. In any case, the link with the sun is another warrant for the fire motif. In terms of mythological patterns, this figure also bears some resemblance to Hercules, a muscular hero who performs arduous labors.
25. drive him. Now, at last, we get the descent of the spirit on the Judge. But the carefully chosen verb is unique to Samson: it means, more literally, “to pound/pulsate [within]” him, and neatly adumbrates his career of intermittent violent action.