5 for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
A Nazarite - See the marginal reference. and note. The common Nazarite vow was for a limited time, like Paul's Acts 18:18; Acts 21:23-26. Others, like Samuel 1-Samuel 1:11, were Nazarites for life.
He shall begin to deliver Israel - Samson only began this deliverance, for it was not till the days of David that the Israelites were completely redeemed from the power of the Philistines.
For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a (b) Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
(b) Meaning he should be separate from the world, and dedicated to God.
For, lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son,.... Which is not only repeated for the confirmation of it, but that she might take notice that he was to be a Nazarite, and therefore must conform to everything agreeable to the law of the Nazarites, and take care that it was observed in him:
and no razor shall come on his head; to cut off the hair of it, not from the time of his birth to his death; for he was to be a perpetual Nazarite: other Nazarites during the time of their Nazariteship were not to suffer a razor to come upon them, but afterwards might; but for such an one as Samson, it was not lawful ever to suffer his hair to be cut off; see Numbers 6:5.
for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb; in which he was a type of Christ, who was sanctified by the Lord, separated from sinners, and called a "Nazarene": was born of a virgin, as Samson was of a barren woman, and his birth foretold by an angel as this:
and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines; for the salvation he wrought for Israel was not complete and perfect; it was only begun by him, and carried on in the times of Eli, Samuel, and Saul, and perfected by David. In this his antitype exceeds him, who is the author of the complete salvation of his people out of the hands of all their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; though in this there is a great resemblance between Samson and our Lord Jesus, in that what he did he did himself alone; not at the head of an army, and with forces under him, as other judges; so Christ with his own arm, and of himself, and without others, wrought salvation for his people; see Isaiah 63:5.
thou shalt conceive, and bear a son--This predicted child was to be a Nazarite. The mother was, therefore, for the sake of her promised offspring, required to practice the rigid abstinence of the Nazarite law (see on Numbers 6:2).
he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines--a prophecy encouraging to a patriotic man; the terms of it, however, indicated that the period of deliverance was still to be distant.
A Nazarite - A person consecrated to God's service. Begin to deliver - And the deliverance shall be carried on and perfected by others, as it was by Eli, Samuel, and Saul; but especially by David. God chuses to carry on his work gradually and by several hands. One lays the foundation of a good work, another builds, and perhaps a third brings forth the top stone.
*More commentary available at chapter level.