properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
man
אִ֨ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Zorah
מִצָּרְעָ֛הmi.tza.re.'Ah
H6881
Tsorah · preposition + proper noun, a place name
family
מִמִּשְׁפַּ֥חַתmi.mish.Pa.chat
H4940
a family · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Danites
הַדָּנִ֖יha.da.Ni
H1839
a Danite (often collectively) or descendants (or inhabi… · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
name
וּשְׁמ֣וֹu.she.Mo
H8034
an appellation · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Manoah
מָנ֑וֹחַma.No.ach
H4495
Manoach · proper noun, a man's name
wife
וְאִשְׁתּ֥וֹve.'ish.To
H802
a woman · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
barren
עֲקָרָ֖ה'a.ka.Rah
H6135
sterile (as if extirpated in the generative organs) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
bare
יָלָֽדָהya.La.dah
H3205
to bear young · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
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
Joshua 19:41 And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Ir-shemesh,
Genesis 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Joshua 15:33 And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah,
Luke 1:7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
1 Samuel 1:2-6 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no child…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Judges 13:1-7
The first verse gives us a short account, such as we have too often met with already, of the great distress that Israel was in, which gave occasion for the raising up of a deliverer. They did evil, as they had done, in the sight of the Lord, and then God delivered them, as he had done, into the hands of their enemies. If there had been no sin, there would have needed no Saviour; but sin was suffered to abound, that grace might much more abound. The enemies God now sold them to were the Philistines, their next neighbours, that lay among them, the first and chief of the nations which were devoted to destruction, but which God left to prove them (Jdg 3:1, Jdg 3:3), the five lords of the Philist…
AN ANGEL APPEARS TO MANOAH'S WIFE. (Jdg 13:2-10)
Zorah--a Danite town (Jos 15:33) lying on the common boundary of Judah and Dan, so that it was near the Philistine border.
John Gill on Judges 13:2
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,.... Of the tribe of Dan, in which tribe Zorah was, and seems to have lain both on the borders of Judah and Dan, Joshua 15:33; See Gill on Joshua 15:33; see Gill on Joshua 19:41, and this man was not a mean man, but of rank and figure, a principal man in the country, according to Josephus (g); though the Talmudists (h) say he was a plebeian:
whose name was Manoah; which signifies "rest", and has much the same signification as Noah; and by this name he was well known in those times, and among his people:
and his wife was barren, and bare not; had no child, as the Targum; and it is observed by many, that several eminent perso…
Whilst the Israelites were given into the hands of the Philistines on account of their sins, and were also severely oppressed in Gilead on the part of the Ammonites, the angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah, a Danite from Zorea, i.e., Sur'a, on the western slope of the mountains of Judah (see at Jos 15:33). Mishpachath Dani (the family of the Danites) is used interchangeably with shebet Dani (the tribe of the Danites: see Jdg 18:2, Jdg 18:11, and Jdg 18:1, Jdg 18:30), which may be explained on this ground, that according to Num 26:42-43, all the Danites formed but one family, viz., the family of the Shuhamites. The angel of the Lord announced to this woman, who was barren, "Thou…
The Church Fathers
Thus Jacob, the patriarch Joseph, Samson, [who was] the bravest of the chieftains, and Samuel, [who was] the most distinguished of the prophets, [all] had as their progenitors [mothers who were] for a long time barren in body but always fruitful in virtues. In this way their dignity would be known from the miraculous nativity of those who were born, and it might be proven that they would be famous in their lives, since at the very outset of their lives they transcended the norms of the human condition.
After the spirit of the Hebrews had been so subdued by the pressure of a long subjection that no one dared with a manly spirit to rouse them to liberty, Samson, fore-ordained by the Divine oracle, was raised up to them. A great man he was, not one of the multitude, but first among the few, and beyond controversy far excelling all in bodily strength. And he is to be regarded by us with great admiration from the beginning, not because in his early abstinence from vice he gave signal proofs of temperance and sobriety, nor on account of his long preserving as a Nazarite his locks unshorn, but because from his very youth, which in others is an age of softness, he achieved illustrious deeds of virtue, perfect beyond the measure of human nature. By these he gained credence to the Divine prophecy, that it was not for nothing that such grace had gone before upon him, that an Angel came down by whom his birth beyond their hopes was announced to his parents, to be the leader and protector of his countrymen, now for a length of years harassed by the tyranny of the Philistines. His father was of the tribe of Dan, a man fearing God, born of no mean rank, and eminent above others, his mother was barren of body, but in virtues of the mind not unfruitful; seeing that in the sanctuary of her soul she was counted worthy to receive the visit of an Angel, obeyed his command and fulfilled his prophecy. Not enduring however to know the secrets even of God apart from her husband she mentioned to him that she had seen a man of God, of beautiful form, bringing her the Divine promise of future offspring, and that she, confiding in this promise, was led to share with her husband her faith in the heavenly promises.
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.…
Barren — For a woman to be barren was accounted a severe punishment among the Jews (Gen. 16:2; 30:1-23; 1 Sam. 1:6, 27; Isa. 47:9; 49:21; Luke 1:25). Instances of barrenness are noticed (Gen. 11:30; 25:21;…
Danites, The — The descendants of Dan and the members of his tribe. (Judges 13:2; 18:1,11; 1 Chronicles 12:35)
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;…
Zorah — Place of wasps, a town in the low country of Judah, afterwards given to Dan (Josh. 19:41; Judg. 18:2), probably the same as Zoreah (Josh. 15:33). This was Samson’s birthplace (Judg. 13:2, 25), and…
Dan, The Tribe Of · Samson was of — Samson was of
Manoah · A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam — A Danite of Zorah and the father of Sam
Samson · any ceremonially unclean thing during gestation — any ceremonially unclean thing during gestation
Zorah · The city of Sam — The city of Sam
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).
