1. Judges 13:15 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is significant about the word “detain”?

Judges 13:15 (ESV)

15 Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.”

The term “detain” has the sense of “holding back.” This seems to be Manoah’s chief role in the narrative: holding back or delaying progress by not listening to his wife and having unneeded conversation with the angel.