Judges 13:4

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

Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: No JFB commentary on this verse.

Beware, I pray thee; because the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, , 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. And drink not wine, nor strong drink; under which by a synecdoche are comprehended the other particulars mentioned , as is implied . Any unclean thing; any of those meats forbidden Leviticus 11, which were forbidden to all, but especially to the Nazarites.

Judges 13:4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean [thing]:Ver. 4. Now therefore beware, I pray thee.] Since he must draw nourishment from thee, both in the womb and at the breasts; since the sanctifying of thy son must take beginning from thyself; beware therefore for his sake, and inure him to abstinence and sobriety of a little child. See also that he nourish his hair, which is the crown of his Nazariteship, and that he come not at funerals, &c. Quintilian requireth in him that shall be an orator, that by his parents, nurses, attendants, he be inured to the best words well pronounced, and that from his infancy; that so he may soon become Vir bonus dicendi peritus, a good man and well-spoken. How much more requisite is this to a magistrate or minister!

(4) Drink not wine.—The mother is to share for a time in part of the Nazarite vow. Strong drink.—Sheekar (LXX., Sikera) means intoxicating liquor not made from grapes (Luke 1:15). Eat not any unclean thing.—Leviticus 11. The law applied to all Israelites, but is to be specially observed by the wife of Manoah, to impress on her and on the nation the separated character of her son.

Verse 4. 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, see in Clarke's notes on "Numbers 6:2", &c.

4. The mother during the time of pregnancy is to observe certain ceremonial restrictions (Judges 13:7; Judges 13:14); she is to live in a state of consecration, in order that her child may be consecrated from the very moment of conception. The two prohibitions are classed together, apparently on the principle that to partake of anything fermented or putrified renders a person unfit for consecration to the Deity1[50]. Thus priests during their service were not allowed to drink wine (Leviticus 10:9, Ezekiel 44:21); while unclean foods, i.e. carrion (Exodus 22:31, Leviticus 7:24, Deuteronomy 14:21) and tabooed animals (Leviticus 11:2-23, Deuteronomy 14:3-20) were forbidden, the former because it had begun to decompose, the latter because in accordance with ancient ideas and custom they could not be used for sacrifice or for food. The restrictions are laid upon the mother; nothing is said about the child observing them. Samson did not consider himself bound to abstain from wine (see below); the second prohibition was not distinctive of the Nazirite consecration. [50] See Robertson Smith, Rel. of Sem., 203 f., 367, 465. Frazer, Golden Bough i. 183–185, suggests that the ultimate reason for abstinence from intoxicating wine was the idea that ‘whoever drinks wine drinks the blood, and so receives into himself the soul or spirit of the god of the vine.’ Such intercourse with a spirit alien to Jehovah would be regarded by a Hebrew as unlawful. The Nazirite abstinence from wine seems to have been determined by other reasons, as suggested above; when it came into practice the original meaning of the prohibition was lost.