The Birth of Samson

¹ The Israelites again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years.

² There was a certain man of Zorah, from the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and was without children. ³ The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “See now, you are barren and without children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴ Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink and do not eat any unclean thing, ⁵ for you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall touch his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of the Lord, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, nor did he tell me his name, ⁷ but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Do not eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸ Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, “Oh, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we should do for the child who shall be born.”

⁹ God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of the Lord came to the woman again as she sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. ¹⁰ The woman quickly ran and told her husband, saying to him, “The man who came to me that day has appeared to me.”

¹¹ Manoah arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He said, “I am.”

¹² Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what shall the child’s way of life and mission be?”

¹³ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. ¹⁴ She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, nor let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. Let her observe all that I commanded her.”

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please stay with us, that we may prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your bread. If you will prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.

¹⁷ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?”

¹⁸ The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask about my name, since it is incomprehensible?”

¹⁹ So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord. Then the angel did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. ²⁰ For when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife watched, and they fell on their faces to the ground. ²¹ But the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.

²² Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”

²³ But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hand, and he wouldn’t have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time.” ²⁴ The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The child grew, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ The Spirit of the Lord began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

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