Judges 13:17-18

13:17 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you when your announcement comes true.” ¹  13:18 The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.” ² 

Genesis 32:29

32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” ³  “Why ⁴  do you ask my name?” the man replied. ⁵  Then he blessed ⁶  Jacob ⁷  there.

Luke 1:19

1:19 The ⁸  angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands ⁹  in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring ¹⁰  you this good news.

[13:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Who your name? For [when] your word comes [to pass], we will honor you.” Manoah apparently gets tongue-tied and uses the wrong pronoun (“who” instead of “what”). He starts to say, “Who are you?” But then he switches to “your name” as if he began the sentence with “what.” See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 222.

[13:18]  ² tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.

[32:29]  ³ sn Tell me your name. In primitive thought to know the name of a deity or supernatural being would enable one to use it for magical manipulation or power (A. S. Herbert, Genesis 12-50 [TBC], 108). For a thorough structural analysis of the passage discussing the plays on the names and the request of Jacob, see R. Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel: Textual Analysis of Genesis 32:23-33,” Structural Analysis and Biblical Exegesis (PTMS), 21-33.

[32:29]  ⁴ tn The question uses the enclitic pronoun “this” to emphasize the import of the question.

[32:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:29]  ⁶ tn The verb here means that the Lord endowed Jacob with success; he would be successful in everything he did, including meeting Esau.

[32:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:19]  ⁸ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:19]  ⁹ tn Grk “the one who is standing before God.”

[1:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “to announce these things of good news to you.”