Verse 4
Beware - drink not wine - As Samson was designed to be a Nazarite from the womb, it was necessary that, while his mother carried and nursed him, she should live the life of a Nazarite, neither drinking wine nor any inebriating liquor, nor eating any kind of forbidden meat. See the account of the Nazarite and his vow in the notes on [Num 6:2] (note), etc.
Verse 5
He shall begin to deliver Israel - Samson only began this deliverance, for it was not till the days of David that the Israelites were completely redeemed from the power of the Philistines.
Verse 6
But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name - This clause is rendered very differently by the Vulgate, the negative Not being omitted: Quem cum interrogassem quis esset, et unde venisset, et quo nomine vocaretur, noluit mihi dicere; sed hoc respondit. "Who, when I asked who he was and whence he came, and by what name he was called, would not tell me; but this he said," etc. The negative is also wanting in the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot: Και ηρωτων αυτον ποθεν εστιν, και το ονομα αυτου ουκ απηγγειλε μοι; "And I asked him whence he was, and his name, but he did not tell me." This is also the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus; but the Septuagint, in the London Polyglot, together with the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, read the negative particle with the Hebrew text, I asked Not his name, etc.
Verse 9
The angel of God came again - This second appearance of the angel was probably essential to the peace of Manoah, who might have been jealous of his wife had he not had this proof that the thing was of the Lord.
Verse 15
Until we shall have made ready a kid - Not knowing his quality, Manoah wished to do this as an act of hospitality.
Verse 16
I will not eat of thy bread - As I am a spiritual being, I subsist not by earthly food.
And if thou wilt offer a burnt-offering - Neither shall I receive that homage which belongs to God; thou must therefore offer thy burnt-offering to Jehovah.
Verse 18
Seeing it is secret? - It was because it was secret that they wished to know it. The angel does not say that it was secret, but הוא פלאי hu peli it is Wonderful; the very character that is given to Jesus Christ, [Isa 9:6] : His name shall be called, פלא Wonderful; and it is supposed by some that the angel gives this as his name, and consequently that he was our blessed Lord.
Verse 19
The angel did wondrously - He acted according to his name; he, being wonderful, performed wonderful things; probably causing fire to arise out of the rock and consume the sacrifice, and then ascending in the flame.
Verse 22
We shall surely die, because we have seen God - See the note on [Jdg 6:22].
Verse 23
If the Lord were pleased to kill us, etc. - This is excellent reasoning, and may be of great use to every truly religious mind, in cloudy and dark dispensations of Divine Providence. It is not likely that God, who has preserved thee so long, borne with thee so long, and fed and supported thee all thy life long, girding thee when thou knewest him not, is less willing to save and provide for thee and thine now than he was when, probably, thou trustedst less in him. He who freely gave his Son to redeem thee, can never be indifferent to thy welfare; and if he give thee power to pray to and trust in him, is it at all likely that he is now seeking an occasion against thee, in order to destroy thee? Add to this the very light that shows thee thy wretchedness, ingratitude, and disobedience, is in itself a proof that he is waiting to be gracious to thee; and the penitential pangs thou feelest, and thy bitter regret for thy unfaithfulness, argue that the light and fire are of God's own kindling, and are sent to direct and refine, not to drive thee out of the way and destroy thee. Nor would he have told thee such things of his love, mercy, and kindness, and unwillingness to destroy sinners, as he has told thee in his sacred word, if he had been determined not to extend his mercy to thee.
Verse 24
And called his name Samson - The original שמשון shimshon, which is from the root שמש shamash, to serve, (whence shemesh, the sun), probably means either a little sun, or a little servant; and this latter is so likely a name to be imposed on an only son, by maternal fondness, that it leaves but little doubt of the propriety of the etymology.
And the Lord blessed him - Gave evident proofs that the child was under the peculiar protection of the Most High; causing him to increase daily in stature and extraordinary strength.
Verse 25
The Spirit of the Lord began to move him - He felt the degrading bondage of his countrymen, and a strong desire to accomplish something for their deliverance. These feelings and motions he had from the Divine Spirit.
Camp of Dan - Probably the place where his parents dwelt; for they were Danites, and the place is supposed to have its name from its being the spot where the Danites stopped when they sent some men of their company to rob Micah of his teraphim, etc. See [Jdg 18:13-20]. As he had these influences between Zorah and Eshtaol, it is evident that this was while he dwelt at home with his parents; for Zorah was the place where his father dwelt; see [Jdg 13:2]. Thus God began, from his infancy, to qualify him for the work to which he had called him.
Introduction
Samson marries a wife of the Philistines, [Jdg 14:1-4]. Slays a young lion at Timnath, in the carcass of which he afterwards finds a swarm of bees, [Jdg 14:5-9]. He makes a feast; they appoint him thirty companions, to whom he puts forth a riddle, which they cannot expound, [Jdg 14:10-14]. They entice his wife to get the interpretation from him; she succeeds, informs them, and they tell the explanation, [Jdg 14:15-18]. He is incensed, and slays thirty of the Philistines, [Jdg 14:19], [Jdg 14:20].
Verse 1
Went down to Timnath - A frontier town of the Philistines, at the beginning of the lands belonging to the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:57]; but afterwards given up to Dan, [Jos 19:43]. David took this place from the Philistines, but they again got possession of it in the reign of Ahaz, [2Chr 28:18].
Verse 3
Is there never a woman - To marry with any that did not belong to the Israelitish stock, was contrary to the law, [Exo 34:16]; [Deu 7:3]. But this marriage of Samson was said to be of the Lord, [Jdg 14:4]; that is, God permitted it, (for in no other sense can we understand the phrase), that it might be a means of bringing about the deliverance of Israel.
For she pleaseth me well - כי היאישרה בעיני ki hi yisherah beeynai, for she is right in my eyes. This is what is supposed to be a sufficient reason to justify either man or woman in their random choice of wife or husband; the maxim is the same with that of the poet: - "Thou hast no fault, or I no fault can spy;
Thou art all beauty or all blindness I."
When the will has sufficient power, its determinations are its own rule of right. That will should be pure and well directed that says, It shall be so, because I Will it should be so. A reason of this kind is similar to that which I have seen in a motto on the brass ordnance of Lewis XIV., Ultima Ratio Regum, the sum of regal logic; i.e., "My will, backed by these instruments of destruction, shall be the rule of right and wrong." The rules and principles of this logic are now suspected; and it is not likely to be generally received again without violent demonstration.
Verse 5
A young lion roared against him - Came fiercely out upon him, ready to tear him to pieces.
Verse 6
He rent him as he would have rent a kid - Now it is not intimated that he did this by his own natural strength, but by the Spirit of the Lord coming mightily upon him: so that his strength does not appear to be his own, nor to be at his command; his might was, by the will of God, attached to his hair and to his Nazarate.
Verse 7
And talked with the woman - That is, concerning marriage; thus forming the espousals.
Verse 8
After a time - Probably about one year; as this was the time that generally elapsed between espousing and wedding.
A swarm of bees and honey in the carcass - By length of time the flesh had been entirely consumed off the bones, and a swarm of bees had formed their combs within the region of the thorax, nor was it an improper place; nor was the thing unfrequent, if we may credit ancient writers; the carcasses of slain beasts becoming a receptacle for wild bees. The beautiful espisode in the 4th Georgic of Virgil, beginning at ver. 317, proves that the ancients believed that bees might be engendered in the body of a dead ox: -