Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Judges 13

1

And the sons of Israel added to do the bad1 in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave2 them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

2

And there was one man from Tsorah,3 from the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah,4 and his woman was barren and had not begotten.5

3

And the angel of Yahweh ‹made› seen6 unto the woman and said unto her, “Lo, pray, thou art barren, and begettest not, and thou shalt conceive and beget a son;

4

and now, guard ·thee, pray, and drink not wine and inebriant,7 and eat not any‹thing› unclean,

5

‹in› that lo, thou art conceivéd and begetting8 a son, and no razor shall ascend upon his head, ‹in› that a separated9 of God the lad shall be from the belly,10 and he shall start to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

6

And the woman came in and said to her husband, saying, “A man of God came in unto me, and the sight of him was as ‹unto› the sight of an angel of God, very fearsome, and I asked him not from whence he ‹came›, and his name he did not tell to me.

7

And he said to me, ‘Lo, thou art conceivéd and begetting a son, and now drink not wine and inebriant, and eat not any unclean-thing, ‹in› that a nazirite of God the lad shall be from the belly until the day of his death.’”

8

And Manoah entreated unto Yahweh and said, “Excuse me my lord,11 the man of God that thou sentest forth, pray let him come in unto us still, and direct us what to do with12 the lad being begotten.”

9

And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came in still unto the woman, and she was dwelling in the field, and Manoah her man was not with her.

10

And the woman hastened and ran and told her man and said unto him, “Lo, the man hath been ‹made› seen unto me, that came in on ‹that› day unto me.”

11

And Manoah rose and went after his woman and came in unto the man and said to him, “Art thou the man that spoke unto the woman?” And he said, “I am.”

12

And Manoah said, “Now, when thy words come in, what shall be the rule13 of the lad, and his work?”

13

And the angel of Yahweh said unto Manoah, “From all that I said unto the woman, let her guard.

14

From all that cometh forth from the vine of wine she eateth not, and wine and inebriant drinketh not, and any unclean-thing eateth not; all that I commanded her, she guardeth.”14

15

And Manoah said unto the angel of Yahweh, “Let us restrain thee, pray, and make before thy face a kid of the goats.”

16

And the angel of Yahweh said unto Manoah, “If thou restrain me, I shall not eat of thy bread, and if thou make an ascension, to Yahweh thou must ascend it,” ‹in› that Manoah knew not that the angel of Yahweh was he.

17

And Manoah said unto the angel of Yahweh, “Who—thy name,15 for when thy words come in and we give weight to thee?”16

18

And the angel of Yahweh said to him, “For what askest thou this, unto my name? And it is wondrous.”

19

And Manoah took a kid of the goats, and a tribute, and ascended it upon the rock to Yahweh, and he did wondrously, and Manoah and his woman saw:

20

and it was, in the ascending of the flame from upon the altar to the heavens, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his woman saw, and fell upon their faces to the land.

21

And the angel of Yahweh ‹did› not add still to be seen unto Manoah and to his woman. Then Manoah knew that the angel of Yahweh was he.

22

And Manoah said unto his woman, “Dying we shall die, ‹in› that God we have seen.”

23

And his woman said to him, “Were it the pleasure17 of Yahweh to ‹put› us to death, he would not have taken from our hands an ascension and a tribute, and not have ‹made› us to see all these ‹things›, and not as ‹just› now have made us to hear ‹things› as this.”

24

And the woman begot a son and called his name Shimshon,18 and the lad became big, and Yahweh blessed him,

25

and the spirit of Yahweh started to drive19 him in the camp of Dan, between Tsorah and between Eshta’ol.20

Footnotes

  1. And the sons of Israel added to do the bad. I have chosen to consistently translate yasaph as “add,” but another way of translating this which better reflects the Hebrew word order would be, “And again the sons of Israel did the bad…” ↩

  2. gave. In Judges 4:2 and 10:7, Yahweh sells the Israelites into the hand of their enemies. Here he simply gives them. He is no longer getting anything out of the deal; they are too worthless to sell. However, lest we overstate this case, we should remember that what is described here in Judges 13 appears to be returning to Judges 10. There we learn that God hands Israel over to both Ammon and Philistia. Yiphtah defeated Ammon, but it is not until chapter 13 that we learn what happens with Philistia. So although theologically Shimshon is presented as a new beginning, an eighth day, a Christ figure, chronologically we are now going back in time 40 years. ↩

  3. Tsorah. “Hornet,” or “Place of Hornets,” a town in the plain of Judah assigned to Dan (cf. Josh 15:33; 19:41). ↩

  4. Manoah. Logos tags this as being from the same root as minchah, the “tribute” offering; however, Strong and Gesenius both take it to be from nuach, “to rest;” which has the same root as Noah. Possibly the name here is meant to evoke both roots; cf. v. 19. ↩

  5. begotten. This term, used frequently throughout the narrative, refers to bringing forth, not merely to giving birth. It is the same word used in Psalm 2:7: “my son thou art; I have this day begotten thee.” ↩

  6. made seen. I.e., he appeared to the woman. In my view, ra’a is a very significant word in scripture, being a key verb in the first verses of Genesis; “and God saw.” I have therefore chosen to preserve it in English using some conjugation of “see” whenever I possibly can, even if that means a rather idiosyncratic manner of description. ↩

  7. inebriant. See note on Numbers 6#3. ↩

  8. conceivéd and begetting. I.e., “thou art pregnant and bearing.” Hebrew does not have past and future tense like English, but conjugates verbs in perfect or imperfect aspects, indicating completed or incomplete actions. There is a significant question in my mind about how these aspects are to be interpreted tense-wise in many cases. Young argues persuasively in his preface to the YLT that the Hebrew aspects are not truly represented in most English translation, but rather cast into a form that reflects modern English assumptions about the future. One of his most intriguing claims is that “the Hebrews, in referring to events which might be either past or future were accustomed to act on the principle of transferring themselves mentally to the period and place of the events themselves, and were not content with coldly viewing them as those of a bygone or still coming time; hence the very frequent use of the present tense.” (Young’s Translation: Publisher’s Note & Preface (1898)). If this is true (and I think it probably is), my own translation is really only a stepping stone toward one which, like Young’s, translates much of the OT in the present tense. Representing the text this way is so jarring to the English mind, and my certainty about Young’s thesis is sufficiently unsure, that I have chosen to generally follow more conventional tense usage; but a consistent application of my theology of translation may well yield a present-tense form that we ought to conform our thinking to. All that said, there are times in the text where I am fairly persuaded that the present tense is the correct approach, and this is one of them. In the course of this brief conversation with the angel, Manoah’s wife appears to go from barren to begetting. The text is highly suggestive that it is the encounter with the angel that in some sense causes Manoah’s wife to become pregnant. This is hinted at by the use of the verb bo, “come in,” which frequently has a sexual connotation (though it does not denote sex). We also must apply the analogy of faith, and read what is happening theologically as an enacted prophecy of the conception of the ultimate barren woman, the virgin, Mary, by the Holy Spirit. The idea is not that Shimshon is the angel’s baby; he is of course Manoah’s. But theologically it is only through an encounter with God that Manoah’s wife can become fertile and conceive, and the suggestion is that this happens instantly. ↩

  9. separated. Trad. “Nazirite.” See note on Numbers 6#2. ↩

  10. from the belly. I.e., from the womb. ↩

  11. Excuse me my lord. This is the best I can do in English; the phrase biy adona is a formal supplication for an audience, somewhat like “Sorry to interrupt, sir,” or “pardon me.” ↩

  12. with. Usually I would translate lamed as “to/for” but in this case the general sense of “as regards to” can only be properly captured using “with.” ↩

  13. rule. The word is mishpat, from the root shaphat, to judge. ↩

  14. From all that I said…she guardeth. The angel does not directly answer Manoah’s question, which is about the rule and work of the lad, not his wife. We may thus safely infer that the requirements laid down for his wife actually are the requirements for Shimson, through his mother; a similar principle to Hebrews 7:10, where Levi is in the loins of Abraham when he meets Melchizedek. Intriguingly, though the angel deigns to (pointlessly) repeat himself, he does not repeat that Shimshon’s hair must not be cut, just as Manoah’s wife did not include this in her report either. This prefigures how the telling of this secret is eventually Shimshon’s undoing. ↩

  15. Who—thy name. Manoah appears to be tongue-tied; he uses the wrong pronoun. The NET suggests he starts saying, “Who are you?” and then realizes this is too informal, and switches tactics. He appears to be flustered. ↩

  16. give weight to thee. I.e., when they glorify or honor the angel. ↩

  17. Were it the pleasure. This is a weak representation because of the limits of English. In Hebrew, “pleasure” is the verb of the sentence, meaning to seek or desire something. ↩

  18. Shimshon. Trad. Samson; “Sunlike” or “Sunny.” A Latinate alternative would be Solaris. ↩

  19. drive. This verb is rare in scripture; it derives from a common root meaning to strike or beat, from which we get the words for foot, anvil, and bell. In another form it means to be troubled or disturbed (Gen 41:8; Ps 77:4; Dan 2:1, 3). But this form is used only here and appears to refer to a driving or thrusting. If we combine the fact that ruach, “spirit,” is also the word for wind, we might say that the spirit is buffeting him to take action. Cf. 2 Peter 1:21, where the image of prophecy coming is that of a ship being driven by the wind: “by the Holy Spirit bearing them along, holy men of God spoke.” ↩

  20. Eshta’ol. “Petition,” probably; it seems to be derived from sha’al, “ask.” ↩