Judges 13:1

1 Again the people of Israel did what the Lord said was wrong. So he handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

Judges 13:1 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 13:1

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
&c.] Committed idolatry, which was the evil they were prone unto, and were frequently guilty of:

and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty
years:
which according to Josephus ^F6 are to be reckoned from the death of the last judge, and the time of Samson's birth; or rather from some time after the death of Jephthah, particularly taking in the two last years of Ibzan, when the Ephraimites having been weakened through the slaughter of them by Jephthah, might encourage the Philistines to break in upon them; from which time to the birth of Samson were twenty years, and twenty more may be allowed before he could begin to deliver Israel out of their hands; so that the oppression lasted forty years. According to others, it began at the same time as the oppression of the Ammonites did, though it lasted longer, ( Judges 10:7 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 5.) c. 8. sect. 1.

Judges 13:1 In-Context

1 Again the people of Israel did what the Lord said was wrong. So he handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

2 There was a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan, who lived in the city of Zorah. He had a wife, but she could not have children.

3 The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and said, "You have not been able to have children, but you will become pregnant and give birth to a son.

4 Be careful not to drink wine or beer or eat anything that is unclean,

5 because you will become pregnant and have a son. You must never cut his hair, because he will be a Nazirite, given to God from birth. He will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines."