Judges 13:17

Israel had again done evil in the sight of the LORD, and he had given them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years (Judges 13:1). It was the cycle the whole book of Judges traces, of turning away, oppression and rescue (Judges 2:11–19), in days when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). In that dark time God moved first. The chapter tells of the angel’s coming before it records any cry from Israel for help.

The angel of the LORD appeared first to Manoah’s wife, a barren woman in the land of Dan, and promised her a son who would be a Nazarite from the womb and would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:2–7). The Nazarite’s vow is the law of Numbers 6. She told her husband that a man of God had come to her. Manoah prayed that the man of God would come again and teach them what to do for the child (Judges 13:8), God heard him, and the angel came back so that Manoah could meet him (Judges 13:9–11). The whole account of his visits fills Judges 13. Our passage opens as their conversation about the child ends. Manoah still thinks he is talking with a prophet, and in nine verses he goes from a kind offer of supper to lying with his face on the ground.

“I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.” “I pray thee” is the courteous Hebrew “please”. The verb for detain, ʻâtsâr, means to hold back or restrain, and here it is a host’s request to keep a guest from leaving until a meal is ready. A kid, gᵉdîy, is a young goat, a word often joined with ʻêz, a she-goat. A young goat was a valuable animal and a generous meal, the kind of honour a household gave an esteemed visitor. Abraham prepared a calf for the three men who came to his tent (Genesis 18:1–8), and Gideon made ready a kid for the angel of the LORD who visited him (Judges 6:11–21). Scripture commends this kind of welcome: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

The angel’s answer comes in two parts. “Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread.” Bread here stands for food in general. The angel has no need of the meal a man would give a mortal guest, and his refusal is the first sign that this visitor is more than a prophet. Then he turns the offer toward its right object: “if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD.” The burnt offering, ʻôlâh, was burned whole on the altar, with nothing kept back to eat, and it expressed complete dedication to the LORD. The verb for offering it up is ʻâlâh, to go up, and it is the same verb used in verse 20 when the angel goes up in the flame. The LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, is God’s own name, the self-existent and eternal one, the covenant name of Israel’s God. Every offering belongs to him, the one LORD of Israel’s confession (Deuteronomy 6:4), and the angel keeps Manoah’s well-meant honour from resting on the messenger.

The narrator explains the whole exchange: “For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.” Like his wife, he took the visitor for a man of God. The verb “knew”, yâdaʻ, returns in verse 21, “Then Manoah knew”, and the passage is the story of how Manoah moved from the first of those sentences to the second. Others in Scripture met God’s messenger before they fully knew him, as Jacob did when he wrestled through the night and asked the name of the one who blessed him (Genesis 32:29–30).

“What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour?” A name, shêm, is a mark of who a person is, and it carries their honour, authority and character. To ask it was a respectful way to learn who this visitor was. Moses asked God’s name at the burning bush (Exodus 3:13), and Jacob asked the name of the one who wrestled with him and heard, “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?” (Genesis 32:29).

Manoah’s words show faith. He says “when thy sayings come to pass”, and he expects the promise of a son to come true. His purpose is to honour the one who brought it. The verb, kâbad, means to be heavy, and in its good sense to be weighty or honourable, so to “do honour” is to give someone weight and recognition. His wish is a good one, and the angel’s answers show him where the honour belongs.

The angel replies, “Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?” The word translated secret, pilʼîy, means wonderful, from a root that speaks of what is marvellous, extraordinary and beyond human understanding. The KJV’s “secret” is a fair rendering, and “wonderful” brings out more of it. The same root gives the name of the child in Isaiah: “his name shall be called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). David says that God’s knowledge of him is too wonderful for him (Psalm 139:6).

So the answer is a gentle one. The angel’s name is too high to be held as a label, and God makes himself known on his own terms, as he did when he answered Moses, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:13–14). Manoah asked for a name and was given a wonder to watch instead, because the next verse says the angel “did wondrously”, with the verb pālā, to be wonderful or to do a marvel, from the same root.

Manoah does exactly as he was told. He “took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD.” The meat offering, minchâh, is a grain offering, usually of fine flour, oil and frankincense, which often went with a burnt offering as a gift of thanks, dedication or homage. The KJV’s “meat” can mislead a modern reader into thinking of flesh. The laws of these offerings are set out in Leviticus 1–7. A rock served as the altar, and verse 20 calls it “the altar”, just as Gideon’s offering was laid on a rock (Judges 6:20–21).

“And the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.” The KJV supplies “the angel” to make plain that the wonder was his. Both husband and wife watched, so both were witnesses of what followed.

Verse 20 tells what the wonder was. “When the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar”, the angel of the LORD “ascended in the flame of the altar.” The verb ʻâlâh is the plain word for going up or rising, and it is the verb the angel used in verse 16 for offering up the burnt offering. The messenger who sent the offering up to the LORD went up with it. Scripture tells of other times when God showed that he accepted a sacrifice: fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering when the tabernacle’s service began (Leviticus 9:24), the fire of the LORD fell on Elijah’s sacrifice on Carmel (1 Kings 18:38), and long before, the LORD had respect unto Abel and his offering (Genesis 4:4). Here the sign is the angel rising in the flame, and Manoah’s wife will speak of it as the LORD receiving their offering.

“And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.” To fall, nâphal, is the ordinary word, and falling on the face was the posture of reverence, worship and submission before someone far greater. Moses hid his face at the burning bush, for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3:6), and the disciples fell on their faces when they heard the Father’s voice on the mountain of the transfiguration (Matthew 17:6).

“But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife.” The verb is yâçaph, to add or continue, so the angel appeared to them again only up to this point. His message about the child was complete, and the sign in the flame confirmed that it came from God. Manoah and his wife were left with the word they had been given.

“Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.” The KJV’s “was” is supplied, and the Hebrew says simply that he was “an angel of the LORD”. The same verb that said Manoah “knew not” in verse 16 now says he knows. He has come to the place the reader of the chapter has stood since Judges 13:3, where the visitor is first named the angel of the LORD.

“And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.” Manoah’s name, Mânôwach, means rest, and at this moment he has none. “Surely die” is the verb to die said twice, mûwth mûwth (in Hebrew mot namut), the Hebrew way of stating something as certain. To see, râʼâh, covers seeing with the eyes and also perceiving and understanding, and Manoah both saw the angel and understood at last who he was. The word for God, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is a plural of majesty, usually with a singular verb. Manoah calls what he saw by the name of God himself.

Manoah’s offering and his fear both point forward to Jesus Christ. In Christ, God came near in a way that brings life. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and he is Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). God has spoken to us by his Son, who is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:1–3). Jesus told Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Manoah was afraid he would die because he had seen God, and those who see God in Christ are told to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), and they behold the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The angel turned all worship toward the LORD, and Jesus taught that the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). The Son, who was in the form of God, humbled himself and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6–7), and at his name every knee shall bow (Philippians 2:10). The angel’s wonderful name was beyond Manoah’s grasp. The Son made the Father’s name known (John 17:26), and Peter knew who Jesus was because the Father revealed it to him (Matthew 16:17).

Manoah’s young goat, burned whole, points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Christ offered himself once to put away sin (Hebrews 9:26–28), finished the work on the cross (John 19:30), and God accepted his sacrifice. The angel rose in the flame, and Christ rose from the dead and was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:9–11), with all power given to him in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). Manoah’s wife reasoned that a God who received their offering and told them his promises meant them life. We have the same reasoning on firmer ground, because God has received the offering of his Son, and all his promises are yea and amen in him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

God came with a promise to a barren woman and her husband, in a land under the Philistines and among a people who had turned from him, and he came before anyone called. He took Manoah’s kind and mistaken offer of a meal and turned it into worship of the LORD, because worship belongs to the LORD alone. He gave his name as Wonderful and then showed Manoah a wonder, so that Manoah saw with his own eyes what a name alone would have left beyond him.

When the sight of God filled Manoah with the fear of death, the answer came from what God had already done. He had received their offering, shown them his power and told them his plans. The same God speaks to us in his Son and has received the offering of his Son, and his holiness, which made Manoah tremble, comes to us with the same grace that his wife saw at the altar.