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Judges 13 · a question people ask

Manoah said, "We have seen God" (13:22). Was he right?

In the text

The chapter records what he said, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God" (13:22), and his wife's answer (13:23), and it doesn't say more about his words. It calls the visitor "The LORD’s angel" throughout (13:3, 13:13-21), and "the angel of God" (13:9); and it says, "Then Manoah knew that he was the LORD’s angel" (13:21). Gideon, when he "saw that he was the LORD’s angel", said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Because I have seen the LORD’s angel face to face!" (6:22), and Jacob said at Peniel, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). The LORD had told Moses, "man may not see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). Who the LORD's angel is, Judges 2 asks: it sets out the two main ways Christians read him, choosing neither, and one of them weighs Manoah's words here (13:21-22). This chapter adds one more verse to weigh: asked his name, he answered, "Why do you ask about my name, since it is incomprehensible?" (13:18).

The verses

“The LORD’s angel appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive and bear a son.”
Judges 13:3 · World English Bible
“God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah, her husband, wasn’t with her.”
Judges 13:9 · World English Bible
“Gideon saw that he was the LORD’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Because I have seen the LORD’s angel face to face!””
Judges 6:22 · World English Bible
“Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.””
Genesis 32:30 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Judges 13

Judges 13: A Nazirite from the womb

This round has no cry to the LORD, yet his angel came with a son who would "begin to save Israel" (13:5). Judges records no vow for Samson: he is a Nazirite "from the womb to the day of his death" (13:7). And the angel's "Why do you ask about my name" (13:18) is, in Hebrew, word for word what Jacob heard at Peniel (Genesis 32:29).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions