Judges - 13:4



4 Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing:

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Judges 13:4.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Therefore beware, and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean,
Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
And, now, take heed, I pray thee, and do not drink wine, and strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing,
Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food;
Now therefore please be careful and drink no wine nor strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing.
Therefore, take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. Neither shall you eat anything unclean.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Beware - drink not wine - As Samson was designed to be a Nazarite from the womb, it was necessary that, while his mother carried and nursed him, she should live the life of a Nazarite, neither drinking wine nor any inebriating liquor, nor eating any kind of forbidden meat. See the account of the Nazarite and his vow in the notes on Numbers 6:2 (note), etc.

Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink,.... Any liquor inebriating and intoxicating, neither new wine nor old wine, as the Targum, and so Jarchi; the reason of this appears in the next verse, because the child she should conceive and bear was to be a Nazarite, and to be one from his mother's womb; and from all such liquors, Nazarites, according to the law, were to abstain, Numbers 6:3.
and eat not any unclean thing; meaning not so much such sort of food as was forbidden by the law to be eaten, which every Israelite was to abstain from, but such as were particularly forbidden to Nazarites, as moist and dried grapes, or anything made of the vine tree, from the kernel to the husk, Numbers 6:3. The reason of this is, because the child in the womb is nourished with the same the mother is; and as this child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, and even in it, his mother was to abstain both from eatables and drinkables forbidden a Nazarite by the law.

Beware - Because the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, Judges 13:5, and from the conception; and because the mother's pollution extends to the child, she is enjoined from this time to observe the following rules belonging to the Nazarites. Strong drink - Under which are comprehended the other particulars mentioned, Numbers 6:2-4. Nor eat - Any of those meats forbidden, Leviticus. 11:1-47, which were forbidden to all, but especially to the Nazarites.

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