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<p>The first verse gives us a short account, such as we have too often met with already, of the great distress that Israel was in, which gave occasion for the raising up of a deliverer. They did evil, as they had done, <i>in the sight of the Lord</i>, and then God delivered them, as he had done, into the hands of their enemies. If there had been no sin, there would have needed no Saviour; but sin was suffered to abound, that grace might much more abound. The enemies God now sold them to were the Philistines, their next neighbours, that lay among them, the first and chief of the nations which were devoted to destruction, but which God <i>left to prove them</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Judg.3.1,Judg.3.3" href="/passage/?search=Judg.3.1,Judg.3.3"><span class="bibleref" title="Judg.3.1">Jdg. 3:1</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Judg.3.3">3</span></a>), <i>the five lords of the Philistines</i>, an inconsiderable people in comparison with Israel (they had but five cities of any note), and yet, when God made use of them as the staff in his hand, they were very oppressive and vexatious. And this trouble lasted longer than any yet: it continued forty years, though probably not always alike violent. When Israel was in this distress Samson was born; and here we have his birth foretold by an angel. Observe,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. His extraction. He was of the tribe of Dan, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.2" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.2">Jdg. 13:2</a>. <i>Dan</i> signifies a <i>judge</i> or <i>judgment</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.30.6" href="/passage/?search=Gen.30.6">Gen. 30:6</a>. And probably it was with an eye to Samson that dying Jacob foretold, <i>Dan shall judge his people</i>, that is, “he shall produce a judge for his people, though one of the sons of the handmaids, as one, as well as any one, of the tribes of Israel,” <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.49.16" href="/passage/?search=Gen.49.16">Gen. 49:16</a>. The lot of the tribe of Dan lay next to the country of the Philistines, and therefore one of that tribe was most fit to be made a bridle upon them. His parents had been long childless. Many eminent persons were born of mothers that had been kept a great while in the want of the blessing of children, as Isaac, Joseph, Samuel, and John Baptist, that the mercy might be the more acceptable when it did come. <i>Sing, O barren! thou that didst not bear</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.54.1" href="/passage/?search=Isa.54.1">Isa. 54:1</a>. Note, Mercies long waited for often prove signal mercies, and it is made to appear that they were worth waiting for, and by them others may be encouraged to continue their hope in God’s mercy.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. The glad tidings brought to his mother, that she should have a son. The messenger was an <i>angel of the Lord</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.3" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.3">Jdg. 13:3</a>), yet appearing as a man, with the aspect and garb of a prophet, or man of God. And this angel (as the learned bishop Patrick supposes, on <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.18" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.18">Jdg. 13:18</a>) was the Lord himself, that is, the <i>Word of the Lord</i>, who was to be the Messiah, for his name is called <i>Wonderful</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.18" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.18">Jdg. 13:18</a>; and <i>Jehovah</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.19" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.19">Jdg. 13:19</a>. The great Redeemer did in a particular manner concern himself about this typical redeemer. It was not so much for the sake of Manoah and his wife, obscure Danites, that this extraordinary message was sent, but for Israel’s sake, whose deliverer he was to be, and not only so (his services to Israel not seeming to answer to the grandeur of his entry) but for the Messiah’s sake, whose type he was to be, and whose birth must be foretold by an angel, as his was. The angel, in the message he delivers, 1. Takes notice of her affliction: <i>Behold now, thou art barren and bearest not</i>. Hence she might gather he was a prophet, that though a stranger to her, and one she had never seen before, yet he knew this to be her grievance. He tells her of it, not to upbraid her with it, but because perhaps at this time she was actually thinking of this affliction and bemoaning herself as one written childless. God often sends in comfort to his people very seasonably, when they feel most from their troubles. “<i>Now</i> thou art barren, but thou shalt not be always so,” as she feared, “nor long so.” 2. He assures her that she should <i>conceive and bear a son</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.3" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.3">Jdg. 13:3</a>) and repeats the assurance, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.5" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.5">Jdg. 13:5</a>. To show the power of a divine word, the strongest man that ever was was a child of promise, as Isaac, born by force and virtue of a promise, and faith in that promise, <a class="bibleref" title="Heb.11.11,Gal.4.23" href="/passage/?search=Heb.11.11,Gal.4.23"><span class="bibleref" title="Heb.11.11">Heb. 11:11</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Gal.4.23">Gal. 4:23</span></a>. Many a woman, after having been long barren, has borne a son by providence, but Samson was by promise, because a figure of the promised seed, so long expected by the faith of the Old-Testament saints, 3. He appoints that the child should be a Nazarite from his birth, and therefore that the mother should be subject to the law of the Nazarites (though not under the vow of a Nazarite) and should <i>drink no wine or strong drink</i> so long as this child was to have its nourishment from her, either in the womb or at the breast, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.4,Judg.13.5" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.4,Judg.13.5"><span class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.4">Jdg. 13:4</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.5">5</span></a>. Observe, This deliverer of Israel must be in the strictest manner devoted to God and an example of holiness. It is spoken of as a kindness to the people that God raised up of their young men for Nazarites, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.2.11" href="/passage/?search=Amos.2.11">Amos 2:11</a>. Other judges had corrected their apostasies from God, but Samson must appear as one, more than any of them, consecrated to God; and, notwithstanding what we read of his faults, we have reason to think that being a Nazarite of God’s making he did, in the course of his conversation, exemplify, not only the ceremony, but the substance of that <i>separation to the Lord</i> in which the Nazariteship did consist, <a class="bibleref" title="Num.6.2" href="/passage/?search=Num.6.2">Num. 6:2</a>. Those that would save others must
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<p class="tab-1">III. The report which Manoah’s wife, in a transport of joy, brings in all haste to her husband, of this surprising message <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.6,Judg.13.7" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.6,Judg.13.7"><span class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.6">Jdg. 13:6</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.7">7</span></a>. The glad tidings were brought her when she was alone, perhaps religiously employed in meditation or prayer; but she could not, she would not, conceal them from her husband, but gives him an account, 1. Of the messenger. It was a man of God, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.6" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.6">Jdg. 13:6</a>. His countenance she could describe; it was very awful: he had such a majesty in his looks, such a sparkling eye, such a shining face, so powerfully commanding reverence and respect, that according to the idea she had of an angel he had the very countenance of one. But his name she can give no account of, nor to what tribe or city of Israel he belonged, for he did not think fit to tell her, and, for her part, the very sight of him struck such an awe upon her that she durst not ask him. She was abundantly satisfied that he was a servant of God; his person and message she thought carried their own evidence along with them, and she enquired no further. 2. Of the message. She gives him a particular account both of the promise and of the precept (<a class="bibleref" title="Judg.13.7" href="/passage/?search=Judg.13.7">Jdg. 13:7</a>), that he also might believe the promise and might on all occasions be a monitor to her to observe the precept. Thus should yoke-fellows communicate to each other their experiences of communion with God, and their improvements in acquaintance with him, that they may be helpful to each other in <i>the way that is called holy</i>.</p>
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