48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the angel of the Lord said unto him,.... Being so importunate, and pressing upon him; why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? and not to be known; as his nature and essence as a divine Person, which may be meant by his name, is what passes knowledge, is infinite and incomprehensible; see Proverbs 30:4 or "wonderful" (p); which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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 Numbers 15:3, and offered it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For it came to pass, when the flame went up towards heaven from off the altar,.... That is, from the rock, which served instead of an altar, and from whence perhaps the fire sprung which consumed both the burnt offering and the meat offering, the flame of which went up to heaven; this rock or altar having no covering, but was "sub dio", open to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife,.... As the flame and smoke ascended, he disappeared therewith, and was seen no more: then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord; by the wondrous things he did, causing fire to come down from heaven, or out of the rock, ascending in the midst of the flame, without being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Manoah said unto his wife,.... Being risen from the ground, where they fell on their faces: we shall surely die, because we have seen God; by which it appears that he not only believed him to be an angel, and not a man, but a divine Person; for though angels are sometimes called "Elohim", the word here used, yet good men were not wont to fear...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But his wife said unto him,.... Who was less fearful, and the strongest believer of the two, seeing her husband so very much intimidated, endeavoured to comfort and strengthen him by the three following arguments: if the Lord was pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands; for it was at the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the woman bare a son, and called name Samson,.... After these appearances were over, Manoah and his wife returned to their habitation, and she soon became pregnant, and at the usual course of time brought forth a son, and she gave him the name of Samson; for what reason it is not easy to determine. Josephus says (s) the word signifies...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan,.... To go out into it, in order to be trained up in and inured to military exercises; or it began to "strike" his mind, inject thoughts into it, and impress it with them concerning doing great things for the people of God in time to come; and for the present put him upon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Judges 14 This chapter treats of Samson's courtship, and marriage of a Philistine woman, Judges 14:1 of his meeting with a young lion as he went courting, and of his slaying it, and afterwards finding honey in it, Judges 14:6, of a riddle which be framed out of this incident, and put to his companions at his marriage to solve,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samson went down to Timnath,.... A city which by lot fell to the tribe of Judah, but was afterwards given to the tribe of Dan, and now in the hands of the Philistines, Joshua 15:57. Judah is said to go up to it, because the place where he lived lay below it, Genesis 38:13, but Samson is said to go down to it, because he lived above it. The...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The idea which this chapter gives us of Samson is not what one might have expected concerning one who, by the special designation of heaven, was a Nazarite to God and a deliverer of Israel; and yet really he was both. Here is, I. Samson's courtship of a daughter of the Philistines, and his marriage to her, ver. 1-5, 7, 8. II. His conquest of a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he came up, and told his father and his mother,.... Of his passion of love, being desirous of having their approbation and consent, in which he acted a dutiful part, and what became him; and may be an example to children to advise with their parents, and have their opinion and consent before they engage in such an enterprise, even before...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then his father and his mother said unto him,.... What he might expect, and doubtless did expect: is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? none in their own family, nor in the tribe of Dan, nor among the whole nation of Israel, but must go...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And his father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord,.... That he should marry this uncircumcised Philistine; Samson knew it was, and that his desire of having her in marriage did not arise from carnal affection to her merely, being captivated with her beauty and external form, for she was not so very fair, her younger sister was fairer than...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath,.... They were prevailed upon to go with him, either because they perceived his affections were so strongly set upon a wife, that they thought it advisable to agree to it, lest it should be of bad consequence to him, or because he let them know that the thing was of God, and what was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,.... The Spirit of might from the Lord, as the Targum, inspiring him with courage and intrepidity of mind, and increasing his bodily strength: and he rent him as he would rend a kid; as he came up to him to seize him, he laid hold on him and strangled him, as Josephus (b) says, caught him by the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he went down, and talked with the woman,.... Entered into a conversation with her, that he might the better judge of her other qualifications, besides that of outward form and beauty, whether she would be a suitable yoke fellow for him; and he talked with her about marriage, and proposed it to her, or talked about her to her father and near...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And after a time he returned to take her,.... Matters being agreed on, and settled on both sides, and the espousals made, he and his parents returned, and, at the proper usual time for the consummation of the marriage, he went again to Timnath for that purpose. It is in the Hebrew text, "after days" (c), which sometimes signifies a year, see...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating,.... Josephus (k) says he took three honeycombs, he means three pieces of the honeycomb, and ate the honey as he went along to Timnath; which he might do without touching the carcass of the lion, and defiling himself thereby, which, as a Nazarite, he was more especially to be careful of: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So his father went down unto the woman,.... At Timnath, whom Samson had espoused; the Targum is, "about the business of the woman;'' about the consummation of the marriage with her; they all three went, the father, the mother, and the son, as appears from the preceding verse: for Samson made a feast, for so used the young men to do; at the time of...