Judges 13:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Judges 13:16
And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.
a messenger · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֜הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
said
וַיֹּאמֶר֩vai.yo.Mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Manoah
מָנ֗וֹחַma.No.ach
H4495
Manoach · proper noun, a man's name
detain
תַּעְצְרֵ֙נִי֙ta'.tze.Re.ni
H6113
to inclose · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
eat
אֹכַ֣ל'o.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
bread
בְּלַחְמֶ֔ךָbe.lach.Me.kha
H3899
food (for man or beast) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
if
אִם'im-
H518
used very widely as demonstrative · particle
offer
תַּעֲשֶׂ֣הta.'a.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
offering
עֹלָ֔ה'o.Lah
H5930
a step or (collectively · noun, common feminine singular absolute
offer
תַּעֲלֶ֑נָּהta.'a.Le.nah
H5927
to ascend · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
LORD
לַיהוָ֖הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
Manoah
מָנ֔וֹחַma.No.ach
H4495
Manoach · proper noun, a man's name
knew
יָדַ֣עya.Da'
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
angel
מַלְאַ֥ךְmal.'Akh
H4397
a messenger · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Judges 13:23 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 hand…
Judges 6:20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did…
Judges 6:26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sac…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 13:15-23
We have here an account,
I. Of what further passed between Manoah and the angel at this interview. It was in kindness to him that while the angel was with him it was concealed from him that he was an angel; for, had he known it, it would have been such a terror to him that he durst not have conversed with him as he did (Jdg 13:16): He knew not that he was an angel. So Christ was in the world, and the world knew him not. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself. We could not bear the sight of the divine glory unveiled. God having determined to speak to us by men like ourselves, prophets and ministers, even when he spoke by his angels, or by his Son, they appeared in the likeness of men, and…
MANOAH'S SACRIFICE. (Jdg 13:15-23)
Manoah said unto the angel . . ., I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid--The stranger declined the intended hospitality and intimated that if the meat were to be an offering, it must be presented to the Lord [Jdg 13:6]. Manoah needed this instruction, for his purpose was to offer the prepared viands to him, not as the Lord, but as what he imagined him to be, not even an angel (Jdg 13:16), but a prophet or merely human messenger. It was on this account, and not as rejecting divine honors, that he spoke in this manner to Manoah. The angel's language was exactly similar to that of our Lord (Mat 19:17).
John Gill on Judges 13:16
And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah,.... In answer to his request:
though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; that is, should he be prevailed upon to stay awhile with him, until an entertainment should be got ready, he would not eat of any of his provisions; for "bread" is put for all eatables, or whatsoever he might provide for the entertainment:
and if, or "but if" (n).
thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord; if he meant to provide not a festival entertainment, but a sacrifice, then he should take care that he did not offer it to strange gods, as was now very much the custom with Israel in this their time of apostasy, Judges 13:1 but to the tr…
Therefore to God alone appertains worship, and this the very angels know, that though they excel other beings in glory, yet they are all creatures and not to be worshiped, but worship the Lord. Thus Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the angel, was thereupon hindered by him, saying, "Offer not to me, but to God." On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the angels; for it is written: "Let all the angels of God worship him."
The Scripture says that Manoe did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. It is clear that his wife also believed that he was a man. In saying Manoe: Let us hold you by force and prepare a kid in your presence, invite him as if he were a man, but to eat with him the sacrifice he had prepared. Because it is not usually said that a kid is prepared more than when a sacrifice is offered. The angel responds to him thus: If you hold me by force, I will not eat your bread. From this it follows that he had been invited to eat. Then he adds: If you prepare a holocaust (Jc 13,16), precisely because Manoe had said: Let's prepare a kid in your presence. Not every sacrifice was a holocaust. The holocaust did not eat anything, because it burned whole; That's why it was called a holocaust. But the angel, who was not even going to eat, advised him to prepare a holocaust, not for himself, but for the Lord. And this he did mainly because the people of Israel at that time were accustomed to offering sacrifices to any false god (Cf Jc 13,1); and then he had offended God in such a way that he was handed over to his enemies for forty years.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Manoah — Rest, a Danite, the father of Samson (Judg. 13:1-22, and 14:2-4).
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Samson — Of the sun, the son of Manoah, born at Zorah. The narrative of his life is given in Judg. 13-16. He was a “Nazarite unto God” from his birth, the first Nazarite mentioned in Scripture (Judg. 13:3-5;…
Angel (Holy Trinity) · . — .
Burnt Offering, The · To be offered only to the Lord — To be offered only to the Lord
Conception · .Manoah’s wife — .Manoah’s wife
Manoah · A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam — A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam
Offerings · To be made to God alone — To be made to God alone
Sacrifices · To be offered to God alone — To be offered to God alone
Titles And Names Of Christ · Angel of the Lord — Angel of the Lord
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 13:16
The angel of the Lord replied, "If thou wilt detain me (sc., that I may eat), I will not eat of thy food (אכל with בּ, to eat thereat, i.e., thereof, as in Exo 12:43; Lev 22:11); but if thou wilt prepare a burnt-offering for Jehovah, then offer it."
