8 Manoah prayed to God: "Master, let the man of God you sent come to us again and teach us how to raise this boy who is to be born." 9 God listened to Manoah. God's angel came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field; her husband Manoah wasn't there with her. 10 She jumped to her feet and ran and told her husband: "He's back! The man who came to me that day!" 11 Manoah got up and, following his wife, came to the man. He said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He said, "I am." 12 Manoah said, "So. When what you say comes true, what do you have to tell us about this boy and his work?" 13 The angel of God said to Manoah, 14 "Keep in mind everything I told the woman. Eat nothing that comes from the vine: Drink no wine or beer; eat no ritually unclean foods. She's to observe everything I commanded her."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 13:8-14
Commentary on Judges 13:8-14
(Read Judges 13:8-14)
Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet, as Manoah, have believed. Good men are more careful and desirous to know the duty to be done by them, than to know the events concerning them: duty is ours, events are God's. God will guide those by his counsel, who desire to know their duty, and apply to him to teach them. Pious parents, especially, will beg Divine assistance. The angel repeats the directions he had before given. There is need of much care for the right ordering both of ourselves and our children, that we may be duly separate from the world, and living sacrifices to the Lord.