Chapter IV

Summary

Several years passed since the death of Deborah. Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephtah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdan, had successively judged Israel, often with interregnums of rebellion, apostasy, and anarchy. After the death of the last mentioned judge, “the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.” We now come to another incident in the history of the women of Israel demanding our attention. In the tribe of Dan was a certain man of the city of Zorah, named Manoah, whose wife had no children, always a source of grief in the families of Israel; not, as the Christians believe, from the idea of becoming the mother of the promised Messiah (who is scarcely mentioned till the time of the prophets, when the awfully threatened chastisements of the Eternal needed such consolatory promises), but because children were always considered proofs of the Lord's love, a privilege granted from Him as the recompence of faithful service; as we read in the words of David, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward,” Psalm cxxvii. And, again, “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: and thy children like olive plants around thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace on Israel,” Psalm cxxviii.