but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
I have already referred to the antagonism of the Philistines on Israel’s southwestern flank (Judges 3:31; Judges 10:7). This nation continued to increase in power during the period of the judges and became Israel’s major enemy by the end of the amphictyony and the beginning of the monarchy.