Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 13:22
And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
22. we have seen God ] lit. for elohim we have seen, i.e. a supernatural being; cf. 1Sa 28:13 and prob. Gen 32:30; God is too definite. See on Jdg 6:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 22. We shall surely die, because we have seen God.] See Clarke on Jud 6:22.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And Manoah said unto his wife,…. Being risen from the ground, where they fell on their faces:
we shall surely die, because we have seen God; by which it appears that he not only believed him to be an angel, and not a man, but a divine Person; for though angels are sometimes called “Elohim”, the word here used, yet good men were not wont to fear death, or conclude they should die on sight of an angel; but their notion was, that an appearance of God to them was death, and were surprised when it did not follow,
Ge 32:30.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(22) We shall surely die.See on Jdg. 6:22.
We have seen God.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 (Exo. 33:20). (Comp. Gen. 32:30; Deu. 5:24.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. We shall surely die Compare note on Jdg 6:22.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” ’
Manoah was terrified when he realised what they had seen. It was a common perception among the Israelites that to see God face to face was to die. No man could see God and live (Gen 32:30; Exo 33:20; Isa 6:5; Joh 1:18). And they were right in fact, for as God told Moses in Exodus 33 none could see the fullness of what He was and live. The awesomeness of His fully revealed presence would be more than the human frame could stand. But as here, His revelation of Himself was always partly veiled, and thus men survived the experience.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 13:22. Manoah saidwe shall surely die See ch. Jdg 6:22 and the places there referred to.
REFLECTIONS.We have here a continuation of what passed at this interview.
1. Manoah entreats him to prolong his stay, and take some refreshment with him before he departs. Note; When God sends his messengers with glad tidings to us, the least we can do is, to afford them kind entertainment.
2. The angel declines accepting his offer, though he does not forbid him to prepare the kid for sacrifice, which he might offer to the Lord, the only true object of worship. Note; The services that we do or offer to God’s ministers, are acceptable sacrifices to God.
3. He refuses to gratify Manoah’s curiosity when the latter inquired who he was, and where he lived, that he might, after the event, do him honour, spread his fame, or send him a present on the birth of his son. His name is secret, not to be known; for who, by searching, can find out God? or wonderful, as Christ is called, whose person, incarnation, and office, deserve this title. Note; (1.) It is highly desirable to cultivate acquaintance with a good man. (2.) If we ask in prayer what is not good for us to receive, the best answer is a denial. (3.) In our inquiries in religion, vain curiosity is dangerous. There are secret things which belong only to God, where it is our highest wisdom to be contentedly ignorant.
4. Manoah having prepared the offering and sacrifice, and laid it on the rock, the angel did wonderously: either, as in Gideon’s sacrifice, he brought forth fire from the rock to consume it; or, if Manoah kindled the flame, to his astonishment he sees him ascend in the midst of the fire, and disappear; hereby evidently intimating his acceptance of the oblation, and discovering himself to them, who now were convinced that he was more than man who talked with them. Note; (1.) When we bring our hearts to God in prayer, Jesus will kindle the holy fire, and lift up our souls to heaven as the flame ascends. (2.) The ascent of the angel betokened the acceptableness of the offering. Jesus, our ascended Lord, is thus gone up to heaven, to present our sacrifices to God, as, for his sake, a sweet smelling savour.
5. For a time in silent wonder and dread, Manoah and his wife, after this strange sight, remained on their faces: when, rising to reflect on this transaction, Manoah expresses his fearful apprehensions, lest (as was then the general opinion) this divine appearance portended his death certain and near. Note; (1.) So weak are we, that we are afraid sometimes of our very mercies. (2.) A good man may at particular seasons be afraid to die.
6. His wife appears not only the strongest believer, but the wisest reasoner. She suggests the groundlessness of his fears from two arguments, strongly evidencing the favor of God towards them; 1. The acceptance of their sacrifice; and, 2 the promise that he had made them; for the accomplishment of which, they must needs live. Note; (1.) It is a singular mercy to have such a help-mate as Manoah’s. (2.) When the sinner is cast down, he should remember what Christ has done for him by his bloody sacrifice, a sure proof that he designs not his death. (3.) The faithful, in times of discouraging providences or sore temptations, should remember the past experience of God’s goodness, as a ground of present support. He that has helped us hitherto wills not our destruction at the last.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 273
MANOAHS VISION
Jdg 13:22-23. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.
AFTER a brief mention of several judges who successively bore sway in Israel, we are led to the contemplation of one, whose birth, as well as life, deserves particular consideration. To his parents a revelation was made respecting him; which revelation, together with the effects of it on their minds, will form the subject of our present discourse.
Let us notice,
I.
The revelation made to them
[The Israelites for their iniquities were brought under the power of the Philistines, who oppressed them sorely and for a long period. But God of his own grace and mercy raised up unto them a deliverer. Other deliverers had been raised up at once, and at the precise time that the deliverance was to be effected: but, in the present instance, the person who was to be Gods instrument of good to the nation, was not even conceived in the womb. He was to be born, as Isaac and Jacob had been, of a mother who was barren; in order that he might more eminently appear to be a special gift of God. There was a man of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah: and his wife was barren, and bare not. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and told her, that she should conceive and bear a son, who should be devoted as a Nazarite to the Lord, and should in due time become, in part at least, a saviour to his country [Note: ver. 25,]. The law relating to Nazarites required a total abstinence from wine, or strong drink, or from any thing unclean [Note: Num 6:2-8.] And as his consecration to this state was to commence from his first formation in the womb, his mother was immediately to observe all that kind of abstinence which was required of the Nazarite himself, and to continue it till the child should be both born and weaned. This occurrence she mentioned to her husband, together with the charge given to herself respecting the abstinence that was required [Note: ver. 6, 7.]. Manoah, being strong in faith, entertained no doubt respecting the accomplishment of the Angels words: but being desirous that the mercy intended to the nation should not be obstructed by any error or neglect on his part, he besought the Lord, that the same person should be sent to them again, to teach them more fully whatever was necessary for them to know, or do, respecting the child. The visit was repeated, according to his desire; and the testimony was confirmed by a visible display of the divine power. Manoah, not knowing who this angel was, whether he was only a man, or an angel in human shape, or whether he was not the Angel of the Covenant, even the Son of God himself in human shape, requested permission to set before him a banquet, or an offering, as might be most suited to his character: but when he had presented an offering, fire, probably from the rock or from heaven, consumed the sacrifice; and the Angel ascended in the flame to heaven; and thereby testified the acceptance both of their persons and their sacrifice.]
Let us now notice,
II.
The effect produced upon them
Great was the faith both of Manoah and his wife: but she, being the more eminent of the two, experienced a very different effect. The revelation produced,
1.
In Manoah, fear
[He now perceived and knew, that the person who had announced these tidings to him was God, in human shape: and Therefore he conceived that both he and his wife must die. This idea was not without some foundation; for, when Moses had entreated the Lord to shew him his glory, the Lord said to him, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live: and for this very reason God put him into a clift of a rock, and permitted him to see, as it were, only his back parts [Note: Exo 33:20-23.]. And, when Jacob had been favoured with a visit from the same divine person in the shape of an angel, he expressed his astonishment that his life was preserved [Note: Gen 32:29-30.]. Indeed, when only an angel has appeared to some of the most distinguished servants of the Almighty, they have been so agitated, as scarcely to retain possession of their minds [Note: Jdg 6:22; Rev 19:10.]. We wonder not therefore at his apprehensions; but we the more admire the composure of his wife.]
2.
In his wife, confidence
[She argued in a very different way. She considered the mercies already vouchsafed to them as tokens for good: for why should God confer such singular honour upon them, if he intended to kill them? Why did he accept at their hands the burnt-offering? Why did he stoop to give them such information? Why give them such gracious promises? Was all this done to mock them? Indeed, if he should kill them, how could the promises be fulfilled? or for what purpose were they given? This was a just mode of arguing; for such mercies were both evidences, and pledges, of his love: and therefore were rather to be considered as earnests of future blessings, than as harbingers of ill. This was precisely the view which Paul entertained of the mercies conferred on him by God, who, says he, delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us [Note: 2Co 1:10.]: and it is the true light in which every instance of his goodness should be considered.]
Let us learn then from hence,
1.
To guard against low and unworthy thoughts of God
[It is realty no uncommon thought, even among good people, that their blessings are too great to be of any long duration. This sentiment does not arise from a view of the instability of human affairs, but from an apprehension that a continuance of their blessings is too great a thing to expect even from God himself, and that his grace, though rich, is not sufficiently extensive for such a gift. But how dishonourable is this to God! and what an unworthy return for all his goodness to us! Why should we entertain such a suspicion? why should we harbour such ungenerous thoughts? why should we so limit his glorious perfections? Let such apprehensions be checked in their very first rise; and let us remember that his disposition to give exceeds our utmost capacity to receive [Note: Eph 3:20.].]
2.
To make a just improvement of the mercies he bestows upon us
[We shall do well to magnify the grace of God in our thoughts, and to inculcate upon others the same heavenly disposition. See how David argued, on a review of his past mercies; Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living [Note: Psa 56:13.]? And, when under peculiar temptation he was led to doubt the continuance of Gods goodness to him, he checked himself, by calling to mind the marvellous mercies that had already been vouchsafed unto him [Note: Psa 77:7-11.].
Nor is it for the comfort only of the person himself that God imparts these glorious hopes, but for the encouragement of others also: and this was the improvement which St. Paul made of his own happy experience [Note: 2Co 1:3-4.]. Only let it be recollected what God has done for us, in giving up his Son to the accursed death of the cross; and can we then limit his tender mercies? can we doubt his willingness to give us any thing else [Note: Rom 8:32.]? Whether therefore it be for the comfort of our own minds, or for the encouragement of others, this is the thought which we should ever bear in remembrance, and enlarge our own expectations from God in proportion as he multiplies his benefits to us: we should look on all present blessings as the first-fruits that precede the harvest, or as the drop before the shower.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 13:22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
Ver. 22. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die. ] The most valiant Gideon said as much in effect. Jdg 6:22 This opinion grew, as it is thought, from the misunderstanding of that text, “There shall no man see me, and live.” Exo 33:20 But albeit we cannot see God in his majesty; yet Jacob, Moses, and others have seen some simulacra vel species, whereby he hath made himself visible to them; they have seen the chariot in which God rode, but not the rider, as the Rabbis express it. a
a Merchabah, velo Rochebh.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God
(See Scofield “Joh 1:18”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
We shall: Gen 32:30, Exo 33:20, Deu 4:38, Deu 5:26, Isa 6:5
we have: Joh 1:18, Joh 5:37
Reciprocal: Gen 28:17 – he was Gen 43:18 – the men Gen 48:16 – Angel Exo 3:6 – hid Exo 24:10 – saw Exo 24:11 – laid not Deu 5:24 – he liveth Jos 5:13 – a man Jdg 6:22 – because Jdg 13:6 – terrible Mat 17:6 – General Luk 1:12 – he Luk 5:8 – Depart Luk 9:34 – and they