Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing:
- KJV Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
- BSB Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
- NASB And now, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.
- NLT So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The woman is told to avoid wine, strong drink, and unclean food. Her son's special calling begins even before his birth.
Overview
These prohibitions reflect the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6), which the child will live out from the womb. By guarding her own conduct, the mother is set apart for God's purpose in raising this consecrated son. The instructions underscore that this child is dedicated to the Lord from his very beginning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Luke 1:15For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
- Judg 13:14She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded her.”
- Num 6:2–3“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,
- Judg 13:7but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Don’t eat any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”
- Acts 10:14But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
- Lev 11:27Whatever goes on its paws, among all animals that go on all fours, they are unclean to you. Whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening.
- Lev 11:47to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 13:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.