Judges 13:19

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.] Probably by bringing fire out of the rock, as before for Gideon, and consuming the sacrifice.

And Manoah and his wife looked on.] For the confirmation of their faith. This was a high favour. All Israel might see Moses go toward the rock of Rephidim. None but the elders might see him strike it: their unbelief made them unworthy of this privilege. It is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his wondrous works.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God sent fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice, to confirm their faith in his promise.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) Did wonderously.—With a reference to the word pelî in the previous verse. (Comp. Jdg_6:20-26.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Ṣar‘a (Zorah), and may have been in the writer’s mind; see the illustration in Driver, Schweich Lectures (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. Archäol. (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-rocks1[52]; and the purpose of these is by no means certain at present.

[52] At Marmita, 2 m. S.E. of Ṣar‘a, at Nebî Samwîl = 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 wondrously2[53], and … looked on) came in here from Jdg_13:20.

[53] If restored to Jdg_13:20 read w‘hû maflî’ for umaflî’.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Num 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, Jdg 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", Jdg 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, Jdg 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.)

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

On. Manue was convinced that the person who had authorized him to offer sacrifice, had power to dispense with him. (Worthington) --- The angel "did wonderful things," as the Hebrew may be explained, causing a flame to proceed from the rock and to consume the victim, as Josephus assures us, (Calmet) and as the angel who had appeared to Gedeon had done, chap. vi. 21. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Meat-offerings were generally joined with the chief sacrifices.

Offered it upon a rock; the angel’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Offered it, etc. He had the angel"s sanction for doing so in ver. 16. But we must not look for strict compliance with the Levitical law in the lawless days of the Judges, though we find many of its prescribed ordinances in use, as, for instance, the institution of Nazarites, and here the offering of the meat offering with the burnt offering. (Lev_2:1, etc.) And the angel. These words are rightly inserted, to give the sense of the original, as more fully explained in the following verse. Did wonderously literally, was wondrous in his doing. The verb here is the same root as the substantive or adjective wonder, or wonderful, in ver. 18. Compare the similar account in Jud_1:6:21.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Meal-offering - Which were generally joined with the chief sacrifices. A Rock - The angel's 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.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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. לעשׁות מפלא, "and wonderfully (miraculously) did he act" (הפליא followed by the infinitive with ל as in Ch2 26:15). These words form a circumstantial clause, which is not to be attached, however, to the subject of the principal clause, but to ליהוה: "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.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

with the grain offering

This law requires a grain offering to be offered when a burnt offering is made. AT: "with the grain offering required with it" or "with the grain offering to accompany it" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

on the rock

"on the altar." The altar Manoah sacrificed the offering on was a rock.

He did something

"The angel did something"

the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar

"the angel of Yahweh went back up into heaven through the flames on the altar"

lay facedown on the ground

"lay with their faces to the ground." This is a sign of respect and honor, but it also shows their fear of Yahweh. (See: Symbolic Action)

translationWords

goat

grain offering

Yahweh

amazed

altar

heaven

angel

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.