Judges 13:5, commentary and pictures

To the childless wife of Manoah was promised a son who would be set apart as a Nazarite to God from the womb, his hair never to be cut, and who would begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines. His uncut hair was only the token of his loyalty and consecration, while his surpassing strength was supernatural from God and depended on that condition. That consecration bound him for life to temperance and purity, to abstain from wine and strong drink and everything unclean and to keep appetite subject to the moral and intellectual powers. Before his birth God laid definite commands on both mother and child, showing that a mother's eating, drinking and conduct shape the child's appetites, health, mind and character for good or evil. Though deliverance was begun through him, by indulging passion and wine and letting his consecrated hair be shaved he broke his vow, the Lord left him and he became weak like any other man, so that what could have been accomplished in honor and exaltation ended in defeat, bondage and death.

Promise and Setting

The promise was given to the childless wife of Manoah of the tribe of Dan at Zorah on the border of the hill country overlooking the Philistine plain. Hers was one of the few households that remained true to Jehovah amid general defection. This was in the early years of Philistine oppression, when God was preparing help to humble the Philistines.

At that time oppression was growing heavier while faithful worshipers kept praying for deliverance, and though year after year there was apparently no response, God's providence was preparing help through a child to be born by whom He designed to humble the power of these mighty foes and begin deliverance. The verse shows God communicating with human beings through an angel, in this case announcing to Manoah's wife that she would bear a son who would begin to deliver Israel. That angel was the Angel of Jehovah who announced the birth to Manoah's wife and is identified with Christ.

Though barren, Manoah's wife would conceive and bear a son. That son was set apart to God as a Nazarite dedicated to Him from birth and from the womb, appointed from before birth to begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines and from Philistine oppression. Because the promised son had this special work requiring physical and moral qualities, God gave Manoah and his wife definite instructions and his habits were to be carefully regulated from before birth.

Consecration and Deliverance

The child was to be a Nazarite to God from the womb, consecrated from before birth, and no razor was to come upon his head, so his hair was never to be cut. His long uncut hair was the token of his loyalty and consecration, with no virtue in the hair itself. His marvelous strength, far exceeding anything human, was supernatural from God and depended on that condition.

His Nazarite consecration placed him under lifelong obligation to temperance and purity, including perpetual prohibition of wine and strong drink and abstinence from every unclean thing. The distinction between clean and unclean food was not merely ceremonial and arbitrary but based on sanitary principles, and observance of it brings health and vitality. Temperance reaches beyond spirituous liquors to dispensing entirely with stimulating, indigestible and hurtful food and using judiciously what is healthful, keeping appetite ever in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers, because habits of diet affect health, character, usefulness in this world and eternal destiny.

He was designed from the very outset of life for a great work requiring physical strength, intellectual vigor and moral purity. He was called to great responsibility, honor and usefulness and was therefore surrounded from birth with the most favorable conditions for them. To fulfill it he had first to learn to govern by learning to obey the laws of God, while remaining a free moral agent who could choose right or wrong and take hold of God's strength or give loose rein to passion.

The promise that God would begin to deliver Israel through him was fulfilled, and his strength served to deliver him from the Philistines. Yet by venturing among the ungodly and licentious, pursuing unlawful passions and using wine, he violated the consecration that bound him to temperance, purity and God. By giving his love and service to a woman who drew him from God, he broke his solemn vow. When he told Delilah the secret and let his hair be shaved while he slept with his head on her knees, he sacrificed the symbol in indulgence of lustful passion and showed contempt for God's favor and authority, as if he had severed his locks himself. So the blessings the token represented were forfeited, the Lord departed from him, and he became weak like any other man.

Had he been true to his divine calling God's purpose could have been accomplished in his honor and exaltation. His life might have been a praise to God and a glory to the nation. But because he yielded to temptation and proved untrue to his trust, his life became dark and terrible and his mission was fulfilled in defeat, bondage and death, ending in ruin.

Instruction for Parents

Because the promised son had a special work requiring physical and moral qualities, definite instructions about conduct and training were given before his birth to Manoah and his wife. The instruction sent from heaven to those Hebrew parents was twice repeated in the most explicit and solemn manner, twice warning in particular not to disregard what was commanded the mother. To secure the qualifications necessary for beginning to deliver Israel from the Philistines, the habits of both the mother and the child were carefully regulated from before birth and from infancy, the mother's habits during pregnancy being ordered to promote health and fitness for service and the child's habits to be regulated from the beginning. The inquiry of every father and mother is to be what to do unto the child to be born, receiving and following guidance from heaven in training children.

For the child's sake the mother was commanded to avoid wine and strong drink and anything unclean, and to observe the same abstinence afterward imposed on him from the first. She must herself be controlled by principle and practice temperance, self-denial and self-control if she would seek the welfare of her child, exercising self-control for the child's well-being and rejecting false advice to gratify every wish and impulse. His training from babyhood was to be in strict temperance, self-denial, self-control and formation of right habits, for a good birth legacy alone was not enough and had to be followed by careful training. Habits of diet affect health, character, usefulness in this world and eternal destiny, so temperance reaches beyond spirituous liquors to dispensing entirely with stimulating, indigestible and hurtful food and using judiciously what is healthful, keeping appetite in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers.

These directions show how the Creator regards prenatal influences and that care about a mother's eating and drinking and their bearing on life and health belongs to One who knows what is best for humanity. The child will be affected for good or for evil by the mother's habits, which influence appetites, passions, bodily health, mind and character, so that prenatal care is important in preparing a child for its appointed purpose and in securing healthy bodies and minds. None of these details affecting physical well-being is unimportant because influences on bodily health also affect mind and character. Parents are therefore to treat the care and formation of a child as a serious responsibility, with the directions concerning this child linked with the temperate upbringing required for John the Baptist's special work.

Fathers as well as mothers share this responsibility because both parents transmit their own mental and physical characteristics, dispositions and appetites to their children. Parental intemperance leaves children lacking physical strength and mental and moral power, with liquor-drinkers and tobacco-users transmitting insatiable craving, inflamed blood and irritable nerves, and the licentious transmitting unholy desires and even loathsome diseases. Since children have less power to resist temptation than the parents, each generation falls lower and lower, so to a great degree parents are responsible not only for the violent passions and perverted appetites of their children but for the infirmities of thousands born deaf, blind, diseased or idiotic.

A mother's conduct before birth matters greatly alongside her efforts after birth, more than external advantages or disadvantages. The warning to beware means resisting temptation and controlling appetites and passions by principle. Selfish, peevish or demanding conduct can leave the child with strong tendencies to evil, while kindness, gentleness and unselfishness can foster those traits in the child. The command for the Nazarite mother to abstain from wine and strong drink is evidence that Christ, who as the angel announced the birth, would not make intoxicating wine.