Judges 13:4

Jdg 13:4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean [thing]:

Ver. 4. Now therefore beware, I pray thee.] Since he must draw nourishment from thee, both in the womb and at the breasts; since the sanctifying of thy son must take beginning from thyself; beware therefore for his sake, and inure him to abstinence and sobriety of a little child. See also that he nourish his hair, which is the crown of his Nazariteship, {Num 6:1-27} and that he come not at funerals, &c. Quintilian requireth in him that shall be an orator, that by his parents, nurses, attendants, he be inured to the best words well pronounced, and that from his infancy; that so he may soon become Vir bonus dicendi peritus, a good man and well-spoken. How much more requisite is this to a magistrate or minister!

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 13:4. Now therefore beware — She was to conform to the manner of life observed by the Nazarites, while she carried her infant in her womb, and perhaps while she nursed him; because, as it follows in the next verse, he was to be a perpetual Nazarite to God, from his conception to his death; which would have bear impossible if she had drunk wine or strong drink, because a child in the womb and its mother subsist by the same nourishment. Drink not wine nor strong drink — Under which are comprehended the other particulars mentioned Num 6:2-4. And eat not any unclean thing — Any of those meats forbidden Leviticus 11. These were forbidden to all, but especially to the Nazarites. In all probability the Israelites were negligent at that time in observing the precept with relation to meats, otherwise there would have been no need to mention this.

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

Verse 4. Beware - drink not wine] As Samson was designed to be a Nazarite from the womb, it was necessary that, while his mother carried and nursed him, she should live the life of a Nazarite, neither drinking wine nor any inebriating liquor, nor eating any kind of forbidden meat. See the account of the Nazarite and his vow, see in Clarke's notes on "Nu 6:2", &c.

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

(4) Drink not wine.—The mother is to share for a time in part of the Nazarite vow.

Strong drink.—Sheekar (LXX., Sikera) means intoxicating liquor not made from grapes (Luk_1:15).

Eat not any unclean thing.—Leviticus 11. The law applied to all Israelites, but is to be specially observed by the wife of Manoah, to impress on her and on the nation the separated character of her son.

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

4. The mother during the time of pregnancy is to observe certain ceremonial restrictions (Jdg_13:7; Jdg_13:14); she is to live in a state of consecration, in order that her child may be consecrated from the very moment of conception. The two prohibitions are classed together, apparently on the principle that to partake of anything fermented or putrified renders a person unfit for consecration to the Deity1[50]. Thus priests during their service were not allowed to drink wine (Lev_10:9, Eze_44:21); while unclean foods, i.e. carrion (Exo_22:31, Lev_7:24, Deu_14:21) and tabooed animals (Lev_11:2-23, Deu_14:3-20) were forbidden, the former because it had begun to decompose, the latter because in accordance with ancient ideas and custom they could not be used for sacrifice or for food. The restrictions are laid upon the mother; nothing is said about the child observing them. Samson did not consider himself bound to abstain from wine (see below); the second prohibition was not distinctive of the Nazirite consecration.

[50] See Robertson Smith, Rel. of Sem., 203 f., 367, 465. Frazer, Golden Bough i. 183–185, suggests that the ultimate reason for abstinence from intoxicating wine was the idea that ‘whoever drinks wine drinks the blood, and so receives into himself the soul or spirit of the god of the vine.’ Such intercourse with a spirit alien to Jehovah would be regarded by a Hebrew as unlawful. The Nazirite abstinence from wine seems to have been determined by other reasons, as suggested above; when it came into practice the original meaning of the prohibition was lost.

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.

Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink,.... Any liquor inebriating and intoxicating, neither new wine nor old wine, as the Targum, and so Jarchi; the reason of this appears in the next verse, because the child she should conceive and bear was to be a Nazarite, and to be one from his mother's womb; and from all such liquors, Nazarites, according to the law, were to abstain, Num 6:3.

and eat not any unclean thing; meaning not so much such sort of food as was forbidden by the law to be eaten, which every Israelite was to abstain from, but such as were particularly forbidden to Nazarites, as moist and dried grapes, or anything made of the vine tree, from the kernel to the husk, Num 6:3. The reason of this is, because the child in the womb is nourished with the same the mother is; and as this child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, and even in it, his mother was to abstain both from eatables and drinkables forbidden a Nazarite by the law.

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

Thing. Exhortations to observe the law are not unnecessary. (St. Augustine, q. 50.) Besides the things which common people might take, such as wine, grapes, &c., were unclean for the Nazarites. The mother of Samson was required to abstain from every species of uncleanness as much as possible, at least while she bore and nursed her child. (Calmet) --- Abulensis says, she was unquestionably under peculiar restrictions till her delivery. (Menochius) --- This was a preparation for the child who should abstain from all unclean things, not only for a time, (Numbers vi.) but during his whole life, that he might be a more perfect figure of Christ. (Worthington) --- His dignity was not of choice, nor could he forfeit it by touching any thing unclean, nor by the violent cutting off his hair. As the deliverer of the people, he must often have been obliged to touch dead bodies. (Calmet) --- Begin. The power of the Philistines was greatly broken by Samson, chap xvi. 13. (Menochius) --- But Samuel, Saul, and David had still to contend with them, 1 Kings vii. 13. (Haydock)

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).

Beware, I pray thee; because the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, Jdg 13:5, and from the conception; and because the mother’s pollution extends to the child, she is enjoined from this time to observe the following rules belonging to the Nazarites.

And drink not wine, nor strong drink; under which by a synecdoche are comprehended the other particulars mentioned Num 6:2-4, as is implied Jdg 13:14.

Any unclean thing; any of those meats forbidden Le 11, which were forbidden to all, but especially to the Nazarites.

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

Beware - Because the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, ver. 5, and from the conception; and because the mother's pollution extends to the child, she is enjoined from this time to observe the following rules belonging to the Nazarites. Strong drink - Under which are comprehended the other particulars mentioned, Num. vi, 2-4. Nor eat - Any of those meats forbidden, Levit xi, 1-47, which were forbidden to all, but especially to the Nazarites.

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

Freshly pressed or intoxicating wine Freshly pressed or aged wine.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.