Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 13:19
So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered [it] upon a rock unto the LORD: and [the angel] did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
19. offered it upon the rock ] i.e. the rock which formed the altar ( Jdg 13:20), and lay close at hand. Such an altar, hewn out of the living rock and reached by steps leading to a platform, actually exists near ar‘a (Zorah), and may have been in the writer’s mind; see the illustration in Driver, Schweich Lecture s (1909), 66, based on Schick, ZDPV.
10. (1887), 140 f., who first gave details of the discovery. The surface of the altar itself is almost covered with cup-shaped depressions connected in many cases by shallow channels. These hollows look as if they were intended to receive liquid offerings, and certainly there is little room left on the surface for a burnt sacrifice. Hence Kittel, Studien z. Hebr. Archol. (1908), 97 108, concludes that the altar was primarily a table for a meal offering, and that its use as a hearth for a burnt offering marks the difference between Israelite and pre-Israelite practice. Jehovah would not receive a meal like a Canaanite god; He does not inhabit the sacred stone or tree; His offerings must be consumed by fire which rises to the heaven where He dwells. Kittel works out suggestively the theological significance of Gideon’s and Manoah’s sacrifice; but it must be remembered that his argument turns on the cup-like hollows found on the surface of this and similar altar-rocks 1 [52] ; and the purpose of these is by no means certain at present.
[52] At Marmita, 2 m. S.E. of ar‘a, at Neb Samwl = Mizpah, el-Jib = Gibeon, Petra, all ancient high-places. Rock-surfaces uncovered at Megiddo, at Taanach, at Gezer, exhihit similar cup-marks; see Driver, l.c. 51, 67, 81, and Vincent, Canaan (1907), 95 f.
with the meal offering ] See on Jdg 6:18. Some scholars regard the words here and in Jdg 13:23 as a later addition made for the sake of ritual completeness.
and the angel did wondrously ] As it stands the text is hardly grammatical; so the angel is inserted in the EV . to make sense. LXX. cod. A and Vulgate read with a slight change ‘unto the Lord who doeth wondrously,’ and many adopt this correction. The clause following is accidentally repeated from Jdg 13:20, where it is in place. Perhaps both clauses ( and did wondrously 2 [53] , and looked on) came in here from Jdg 13:20.
[53] If restored to Jdg 13:20 read w‘h mafl’ for umafl’.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Meat-offerings were generally joined with the chief sacrifices.
Offered it upon a rock; the angels presence and command being a sufficient warrant for the offering of sacrifice by a person who was no priest, and in a place otherwise forbidden.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering,…. The kid which he proposed to make an entertainment with, for the man of God, he took him to be, he fetched and brought for a burnt offering, at the hint which the angel had given him, and joined to it a meat offering, as was usual whenever burnt offerings were made; see Nu 15:3,
and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord; for though Manoah was not a priest, nor was this a proper place for sacrifice; high places were now forbidden, and only at the tabernacle in Shiloh were offerings to be brought; yet all this was dispensed with, and Manoah was justified in what he did by the warrant of the angel, Jud 13:16. The rock was probably near the place where this meeting of Manoah and his wife with the angel was, and where the discourse between them passed; and which served instead of an altar, and on which Manoah sacrificed, not to idols, but to the true Jehovah, as the angel directed:
and the angel did wondrously; agreeably to his name, which was “Wonderful”, Jud 13:18 or “he, Jehovah, did wondrously” for this angel was no other than Jehovah the Son. 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 offering; and so Josephus q says, that he touched the flesh with a rod he had, and fire sparkled out, and consumed it with the bread, or meat offering; just in the same manner as the angel did with the kid and cakes that Gideon brought, Jud 6:21
and Manoah and his wife looked on; to see either fire come down from heaven, or spring up out of the rock, which consumed the sacrifice, and showed the Lord’s acceptance of it, and also the angel’s ascending in it, as follows.
q Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 8. sect. 3.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Manoah then took the kid and the minchah, i.e., according to Num 15:4., the meat-offering belonging to the burnt-offering, and offered it upon the rock, which is called an altar in Jdg 13:20, because the angel of the Lord, who is of one nature with God, had sanctified it as an altar through the miraculous acceptance of the sacrifice. , “ and wonderfully (miraculously) did he act ” ( followed by the infinitive with as in 2Ch 26:15). These words form a circumstantial clause, which is not to be attached, however, to the subject of the principal clause, but to : “Manoah offered the sacrifice to the Lord, whereupon He acted to do wonderfully, i.e., He performed a wonder or miracle, and Manoah and his wife saw it” (see Ewald, Lehrb. 341, b., p. 724, note). In what the miracle consisted is explained in Jdg 13:20, in the words, “ when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar; ” that is to say, in the fact that a flame issued from the rock, as in the case of Gideon’s sacrifice (Jdg 6:21), and consumed the sacrifice. And the angel of the Lord ascended in this flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell upon their faces to the earth (sc., in worship), because they discovered from the miracle that it was the angel of the Lord who had appeared to them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(19) Did wonderously.With a reference to the word pel in the previous verse. (Comp. Jdg. 6:20-26.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Manoah took a kid Here notice another instance of a person offering a burnt-offering with his own hands, and far from the tabernacle.
Offered it upon a rock As Gideon offered his kid and unleavened cakes. Jdg 6:20.
Did wondrously His acts accorded with his name. The great miracle was his ascension in the flame of the altar; by which sublime manifestation he overwhelmed Manoah and his wife with a sudden conviction of his divine essence and glory. This conviction only deepened and became more permanent with the lapse of time, and the fact that the Angel no more appeared.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh, and the angel did wondrously and Manoah and his wife looked on.’
Manoah offered the kid and the meal offering on the rock to Yahweh at the direct command of the Angel of Yahweh. Compare and contrast Jdg 6:20-21 where Gideon did not offer the sacrifice but stood by and watched the Angel do it. Here Manoah himself offered the burnt offering. There was no altar which suggests it was not his regular custom. It is possible that he was a priest, for although ‘related’ to the family of the Danites (Jdg 13:2) he may have been a priest from a priestly family living among them and adopted by the tribe, a Danite Levite. Alternately under the Angel’s instruction he may have been a priest for the day. Either way this was a unique offering in a place where Yahweh had revealed Himself, offered under His direct instruction. It was not a pattern for others.
“And the angel did wonderfully.” His name was wonderful (Jdg 13:18) and He behaved wonderfully. He performed a mighty wonder in front of them, inspiring awe and worship. The writer stresses that Manoah and his wife were witnesses to it. These are not just tales. The writer wants us to know that they did happen in front of reliable witnesses.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 13:19. And the angel did wonderously There is nothing for angel in the original, which might easily be construed thus: “So Manoah took a kid, with a meat-offering, and offered upon a rock unto the Lord; and he did wonderfully, Manoah and his wife looking on: for it came to pass,” &c. ver.
20 in which verse we have an account of what this divine messenger did; most probably, bringing fire from the altar, as in the case of Gideon, chap. Jdg 6:21 out of the rock, to consume the burnt-offering, and then ascending in the midst of the flame to heaven. The celebrated Vitringa supposes, that it was the angel, who, upon this occasion, performed the principal functions of the priest; the most essential of which was to put the fire to the burnt-offering. Manoah, according to him, dared not to perform the offices of the priesthood in the presence of a personage whom he took for an extraordinary prophet commissioned from God. All that he did was done by the order of the angel, or as his minister; just as the Israelites obeyed Elijah afterwards, 1Ki 18:34. See Vitringa, as quoted above.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
What a most interesting scene this must have been! It seems as if the man and his wife did nothing but look on. Yes, our faith can go no further. To lift a tool upon the altar is to pollute it. Exo 20:25 . Jesus is both the sacrifice, the rock or altar on which the sacrifice is offered, and the High Priest to offer. Well might they look on when the Lord did things so wondrously. There could be no longer a question who this was, when he ascended in the flame of the altar. Whether fire came down from heaven, or whether the Lord caused it to issue from the rock to consume the sacrifice, it is not said; but the acceptableness of the sacrifice could not be doubted, when the wonderful angel ascended with it before God. Reader, how very precious are such views, in type and figure, we meet with occasionally in the Old Testament, of that one grand and all-sufficient offering which our Lord Jesus made by himself under the New dispensation? And oh! how very, very refreshing to the souls of God’s people now, is the consideration, that our dear Lord, as Mediator, gives a sanctity and sweetness to all the pure offerings of our hearts, in perfuming them with the odours of his blood and righteousness, and ascending in the flame of our devotions which he himself, by his Holy Spirit, hath excited; and carries them, as our High Priest, before the throne! Oh! may my soul never presume to draw nigh, but under the censer of this Great High Priest! And may my soul never cease to draw nigh, now I have such an High Priest and Advocate with the Father, who is the propitiation for my sins. 1Jn 2:1-2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 13:19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered [it] upon a rock unto the LORD: and [the angel] did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
Ver. 19. So Manoah took a kid, &c. ] Both the sacrifiser and the altar were extraordinary; but they had Christ’s warrant for it. Jdg 19:16
And the angel did wondrously.
And Manoah and his wife looked on.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wonderously = a wonderful thing.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
took: Jdg 6:19, Jdg 6:20, 1Ki 18:30-38
did wonderously: He acted according to His Name: He, being wonderful, performed wonders; probably causing fire to arise out of the rock and consume the sacrifice, and then ascended in the flame. Jdg 6:21, 1Ki 18:38
Reciprocal: Lev 9:24 – there came a fire Jdg 2:5 – they sacrificed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 13:19-20. And offered it upon a rock 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. Vitringa, however, supposes that it was the angel who upon this occasion performed the principal functions of the priest; the most essential of which was to put the fire to the burnt-offering. Manoah, he observes, dared not to perform the offices of the priesthood in the presence of a personage whom he took for an extra-ordinary prophet, commissioned from God. All that he did was done by order of the angel, or as his minister; just as the Israelites obeyed Elijah afterward, 1Ki 18:34. The angel, or rather he, (for there is nothing for angel in the original,) did wondrously Bringing fire out of the rock, as in the case of Gideon, Jdg 6:21, to consume the burnt-offering, and then ascending in the midst of the flame, hereby manifesting his nature and essence to be spiritual. Off the altar That is, from that part of the rock which served instead of an altar, upon which the sacrifice was laid. Manoah and his wife fell on their faces Partly out of reverence for so glorious a person manifested in so wonderful a manner, and partly out of a religious horror and fear of death; for the prevention whereof they fell down in the way of supplication to God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered [it] upon a rock unto the LORD: and [the angel] did {i} wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
(i) God sent fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice, to consume their faith in his promise.