Judges 13:4

4 Therefore be thou ware, lest thou drink wine, and cider (or cider), neither eat thou any unclean thing;

Judges 13:4 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 13:4

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, ( Numbers 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, ( Numbers 6:3 Numbers 6:4 ) . 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.

Judges 13:4 In-Context

2 Forsooth a man was of Zorah, of the kindred of Dan (And there was a man of Zorah, of the tribe of Dan), Manoah by name, and he had a barren wife.
3 To which wife an angel of the Lord appeared, and said to her, Thou art barren, and without free children; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
4 Therefore be thou ware, lest thou drink wine, and cider (or cider), neither eat thou any unclean thing;
5 for thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, whose head a razor shall not touch; for he shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy of God, from his young age, and from the mother's womb (for he shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy to God, from his mother's womb); and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of [the] Philistines.
6 And when she had come to her husband, she said to him, A man of God came to me, and he had an angel's cheer, and he was full fearedful (and he had the face of an angel, and he was most frightening); and when I had asked him, who he was, and from whence he came, and by what name he was called, he would not say to me;
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.