was nbout to worship said, "Seo thou do it Ver. 21.-But. It is better rendered cund, not" (Rev, x.xii 9); nnd Bnrnnbas and Paul in close sequence to the preceding words. It rem in among the people of Lycaonio. to follows, Then, i. e. when they saw him go restrain them from offering sacrifice to them up, they knew that he wae an e.ngel. (Acts xiv. 14-1B). The order of tho words, Ver. 22.-We shall surely die, &c. Simi- which is rightly given in the A. V., makes it larly Gideon (eh. vi. 22, 23) expressed his a clear direction to offer the sacrifice to no alarm because he had " seen an angel of the one but tho Lord. Lord face to face," but was assured, "Thou Ver. 17.-Whe.t ie thy ne.met See note shalt not die." And so Isaiah said, " Woe is to ver. 6. The phrase is very peculiar, me ! for mine eyes have seen the King, the literally, Who is thy name? ns if he had Lorcl of hosts" (Isa. vi. 5). So again the been going to say, Who art thou? and then Lord saicl to Moses, "There shall no man changed the form to is thy name. The see me and live" (Exod. x.xxiii. 20). The Hebrews seem to have attached great import- name of the well, Beer-lahai-roi, is also ance to names, a circumstance due, in part, thought to mean the well of him that is to every name being significant in the spoken alive after seeing God (Gen. xvi. 14). And language (see Gen. iv. 1, 25 ; v. 29 ; xvi. 5, Jacob called the name of the place where he &c.; xvii. 19; xxv. 25, 26 ; xxix. and :xxx. ; wrestled with the angel Peniel, "for I have 1 Sam. i., x.x. ; Isa, ix. 6 ; lxii. 4 ; J er. xxiii, seen God face to face, and my life is pre- 6 ; Ephes. i. 21; Phil. ii. 9, 10; Rev. xix. 16, served" {Gen. xxxii. 30). See too Exod. xx. &c., and many other passages). Compare 19. The same belief also prevailed amongst also the phrase, the name of the Lord (Isa. the bee.then, that seeing a god without his xxx. 27 ; Exod. xxiii. 21 ; xxxiii. 19 ; x.x.xiv. special permission was visited by death or 5, 6, 7). Manoah had certainly some sus- some grave calamity, as Calli.machus, quoted picions as to the mysterious character of his by Grotins, says- visitor, and expected the name to reveal his true nature. We me.y do thee honour. " Tho laws of Saturn thus decree, Manoah seems throughout to nse ambiguous Who dares immortal gods to see language, suitable either to a man, if he was Shall suffer loss, whoe'er he be." speaking to a man, or to a celestial visitant, Ver. 23.-But his wife so.id, &c. The should he be angel or God. woman's faith saw more clearly than the Ver, 1B.-It is secret. The Hebrew word ma.n's fear. With the acceptance of the does not mean secret, but wm<krjul, 11B it is sacrifice the conscience was cleared from rendered in Isa. ix. 6, and elsewhere. His guilt. The ascent of the angel in the flame name wes one which, as St. Paul expresses of the altar was to her the same evidence of it, it is not lawful, or possible, for a man an accepted sacrifice e.s the resurrection and to utter (2 Cor. xii. 4), it wa.s so transcend- ascension of the Lord Jesus a.re to us. ently wonderful. The feeling of the Hebrews Ver. 24.-Called his name Samson. No in abstaining from uttering the name i1lM' doubt the name was signifiront of what the was akin to this. Some take the angel to child should be (see note to ver. 17), but sny that WONDERFUL is his name, but the the etymology and menning of the name are A. V. is right in prefixing seeing-seeing it doubtful. Josephus (' Antiq.,' V. viii. 4) says is wonderful. the name menns "a strong one," but he doe~ Ver. 19. - Offered it, &c. He had the not say in what language, and it does not angel's sanction for doing so in ver. 16. e.ppear to hnve snch e. meaning in any But we must not look for strict compliance Semitic dialect. It is commonly inter- with the Leviffl!al law in the lawless days of preted to mean like the sun, from shemesh, the Judges, though we find many of its pre- the common word for the sun ; nnd so scribed ordinances in use, 11s, for instance, the Jerome in his 'Onomasticon' expounds it as institution of N ezarites, 11nd here the offer- the sun's strength, possibly with 11n allusion ing of the meat offering with the burnt to eh. v. 31. Others make it equal ski·m- offering (Levit. ii. 1, &c.). And the angel. shom, from the Pilpel conjugation of shamem, These words are rightly inserted, to give the to devastate. Another possible derivation is sense of the origin 111, as more fully explained from the Cho.ldee slwmash, to minister, speci- in the following verse. Did wonderously- ally in B11cred things, a. root from which the literally, was wondrous in his doing. The Nestorie.n, Syriac o.ud Arabic names for a. verb here is the snme root as the substantive deacon a.re derived. If this were the dori va- or ndjectivewonder, or wO'Tlderful, in ver.1B. tion, it would be a. reference to his dedicntion Compnre the similar nccount in eh. vi. 21. to God as e. No.znrite from his mother's womb, Ver. 20. -Looked on it. There is no the only thing his mother knew a.bout him occasion for the itnlic it, the phrase is iden- when she gnve him the name. tical with thnt nt the close of ver. 19; but Ver. 25. -The Spirit of the Lord, &c. the rendering would be better, And when See eh. iii. 10, note. To move him- to Manoah and hill wife saw it, they fell, &c. urge and impel him to strange actions by fits 140 THE DOOR OF JUDGES. tcH. XIII. 1-26.
and starts. It is an uncommon expression. or, as in eh. xviii. 12, Mahaneh-Dan, where In ~n. xli. 8 the passive of the verb means the reason of the name is explained. For to be troubled or agitated, and the substantive Zorah see ver, 2, note. Eshtaol has not is the common word for a time in the phrases hitherto been identified with any existing time af/m' time, twice, thrice (according to place, but it ou~ht to lie east or north of the number specified), ofJu!r times, &c. ; also Mabaneh-Dan, smce this last was between a foot,s/,ep: and its derivatives mean an Zorah and Eshtaol (see note on eh. xviii.12). anvil, a bell. The idea is that of sudden, Kustul, a conical hill one hour west of single impulses, such as are described in the Jerusalem, has been suggested. following chapters. In the oamp of Dan,