Judges 13

¹And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years .

²There was a certain man of Zorah , of the tribe of the Danites , whose name was Manoah . And his wife was barren and had no children .

³And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have not borne children , but you shall conceive and bear a son .

⁴Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink , and eat nothing unclean ,

⁵for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son . No razor shall come upon his head , for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb , and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines .

⁶Then the woman came and told her husband , A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God , very awesome . I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name ,

⁷but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son . So then drink no wine or strong drink , and eat nothing unclean , for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death .

⁸Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said , O Lord , please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born .

⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah , and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field . But Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰So the woman ran quickly and told her husband , Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.

¹¹And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to this woman ? And he said , I am.

¹²And Manoah said , Now when your words come true , what is to be the child’s manner of life , and what is his mission ?

¹³And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah , Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful .

¹⁴She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine , neither let her drink wine or strong drink , or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe .

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

¹⁶And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah , If you detain me, I will not eat of your food . But if you prepare a burnt offering , then offer it to the Lord. (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.)

¹⁷And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name , so that, when your words come true , we may honor you?

¹⁸And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name , seeing it is wonderful ?

¹⁹So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering , and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works wonders , and Manoah and his wife were watching .

²⁰And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar , the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar . Now Manoah and his wife were watching , and they fell on their faces to the ground .

²¹The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife . Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.

²²And Manoah said to his wife , We shall surely die , for we have seen God .

²³But his wife said to him, If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands , or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these .

²⁴And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson . And the young man grew , and the Lord blessed him.

²⁵And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan , between Zorah and Eshtaol .