Judges 13

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 25 verses.

A linguistic study by Chisholm reveals that the central part in the Book of Judges (Judges 3:7–16:31) can be divided into two panels based on the six refrains that state that the Israelites did evil in Yahweh’s eyes:[10]

Panel One

A 3:7 ויעשו בני ישראל את הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD (KJV)[11]

B 3:12 ויספו בני ישראל לעשות הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD

B 4:1 ויספו בני ישראל לעשות הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD

Panel Two

A 6:1 ויעשו בני ישראל הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD

B 10:6 ויספו בני ישראל לעשות הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD

B 13:1 ויספו בני ישראל לעשות הרע בעיני יהוה

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD

Furthermore from the linguistic evidence, the verbs used to describe the Lord’s response to Israel’s sin have chiastic patterns and can be grouped to fit the division above:[12]

Panel One

3:8 וימכרם, “and he sold them,” from the root מָכַר, makar

3:12 ויחזק, “and he strengthened,” from the root חָזַק, khazaq

4:2 וימכרם, “and he sold them,” from the root מָכַר, makar

Panel Two

6:1 ויתנם, “and he gave them,” from the root נָתַן, nathan

10:7 וימכרם, “and he sold them,” from the root מָכַר, makar

13:1 ויתנם, “and he gave them,” from the root נָתַן, nathan

Chapters 13–16 contains the "Samson Narrative" or "Samson Cycle", a highly structured poetic composition with an 'almost architectonic tightness' from a literary point-of-view.[13] The entire section consists of 3 cantos and 10 subcantos and 30 canticles, as follows:[13]

• Canto I : the birth story of Samson (Judges 13:2–25)
• Canto II : the feats of Samson in Timnah and Judah (Judges 14:1–16:3)
• Canto III : Samson's exploits in the Valley of Sorek and the temple of Dagon (Judges 16:4–31).

The distribution of the 10 subcantos into 3 cantos is a regular 2 + 4 + 4, with the number of canticles per subcanto as follows:[13]

• Canto I: 3 + 3
• Canto II: 3 + 3 + 3 + 5 (3 + 2?)
• Canto III: 2 + 2 + 3 + 3

The number of strophes per canticle in each canto is quite uniform with numerical patterns in Canto II showing a 'concentric symmetry':[13]

• Canto I: 4 + 4 + 4 | 4 + 4 + 4
• Canto Ila: 4 + 3 + 3 | 4 + 4 + 4 | 3 + 3 + 4 (concentric)
• Canto IIb: 4 + 4 + 3 + 4? + 4 (concentric)
• Canto III: 4 + 4 | 4 + 4 | 4 + 4 + 4 | 3 + 3 + 4

The structure regularity within the whole section classifies this composition as a 'narrative poetry' or 'poetic narrative'.[14]

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.[15]

The oppression of the Israelites by the Philistines was briefly mentioned in Judges 10:7, is stated here again with the standing formula: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord" (cf. Judges 10:6; Judges 4:1; Judges 3:12).[16]

• "Forty years": as Samson judged Israel for 20 years during the 40-year oppression (Judges 15:20; Judges 16:31), he must have started his judgeship at around the age of 20 right after the incident of his marriage with a Philistine woman (Judges 14).[16] The end of the 40 years of the Philistine oppression was the decisive victory under the command of Samuel (1 Samuel 7), twenty years after the Philistines had sent back the Ark of the Covenant, which they had taken from the Israelites for seven months in their own territory (1 Samuel 6:1, 1 Samuel 7:2).[16] Therefore, the twenty years of Samson as a judge of Israel took place in this time frame, shortly following the death of Eli (1 Samuel 4:18), until just before the final victory in Eben-Ezer (1 Samuel 7:12–13)[16]

Manoah and his barren wife sacrifice a ram to the angel of the Lord (above), in Eustache Le Sueur's The Sacrifice of Manoah, 1640–1650.

The birth narrative of Samson follows the pattern of heroes' birth in the Israelite tradition, starting with as a barren mother (cf. Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Hannah) receiving an annunciation (verse 3), a special theophany usually with women as the 'primary recipients' (cf. Mary in Luke 1), accompanied by specific instructions for the mother and son (verses 4-6) causing an expression of fear or awe (verse 22; cf. Rebekah in Genesis 25:22–23; Hagar in Genesis 16:11–12; Sarah and Abraham in Genesis 18).[5] Samson's nazirite identity (verses 4–6; 7; 14) is in accordance to the description in the Priestly text of Numbers 6:1–21, but among the nazirite characteristics, the specific motif of hair is especially central to the Samson Narrative.[5] Samson's mother was unnamed, although she was the one receiving the important message about the birth and especially about the hair (verse 5), and appears to be calmer (and more readily believe the message) than her named husband (Manoah) who was fearful and unsure (cf. verses 8, 12, 16, and 21 with 6–7, 10, 23).[5] As a confirmation of her importance in the narrative, she is the one who names the boy, Samson ("man of the sun"; in Hebrew: simson, whereas semes means "sun"), following the tradition of naming the child in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:20; Eve in Genesis 4:1, and the matriarchs, Leah and Rachel).[5]

The narrative in verses 3–24 has a structure that almost parallels with Judges 16 in terms of text arrangement:[17][18]

The woman is barren (13:2)

1) an inclusion

1. A. messenger appears (Hebrew: wyr) to the woman (13:3–5)

2. B. the woman tells her husband (13:6–8)

3. C. he prays that the messenger come again (13:9)

4. A'. the messenger comes again to the woman (13:9)

5. B'. she tells the man has appeared (Hebrew: nr'h) (13:10)

2) fourfold asking and answer discourse (13:11–18)

1. First question and answer (13:11)

2. Second question and answer (13:12–14)

3. A request and reply (13:15–16)

4. Fourth question and answer (13:17–18)

3) an inclusion

1. Manoah takes (Hebrew: wyqh) a kind and cereal offering (13:19)

2. messenger does not appear again (13:20–21)

3. Manoah knew he was messenger of YHWH (13:21–22)

4. YHWH would not have taken (Hebrew: lqh) the burnt offering (13:23)

The woman bears a son (13:24)

• Related Bible parts: Judges 14, Judges 15, Judges 16, Hebrews 11

• Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. (2009). "The Chronology of the Book of Judges: A Linguistic Clue to Solving a Pesky Problem" (PDF). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 52 (2): 247–55.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Coogan, Michael David (2007). Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 (Augmented 3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195288810.
• Halley, Henry H. (1965). Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary (24th (revised) ed.). Zondervan Publishing House. ISBN 0-310-25720-4.
• Hayes, Christine (2015). Introduction to the Bible. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300188271.
• Kim, Jichan (1993). The Structure of the Samson Cycle. Kok Pharos Publishing House. ISBN 978-9039000168.
• Niditch, Susan (2007). "10. Judges". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 176–191. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
• Webb, Barry G. (2012). The Book of Judges. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802826282.
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
• Younger, K. Lawson (2002). Judges and Ruth. The NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0310206361.

• Jewish translations:
  • Shoftim - Judges - Chapter 13 (Judaica Press). Hebrew text and English translation [with Rashi's commentary] at Chabad.org
• Christian translations:
  • Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
  • Judges chapter 13. Bible Gateway