Judges 13:1-25
13 And the sons of Israel did more of what displeased Jehovah, and Jehovah gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 Now there was a certain man of Soreah, of the Danite clan, named Manoah; and his wife was barren and had never had a child.
3 And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to the wife and said to her “You are barren, have never had a child; you shall conceive and have a son.
4 * Now take care not to drink wine or beer, nor to eat anything unclean;
5 for you are conceiving and are to have a son, over whose head no razor shall go, because he shall be God’s devotee from his birth; and he shall begin saving Israel from the Philistines.”
6 * And the woman went in and told her husband “The man of God came to me, looking like the Angel of God, very awful; and I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name; and he said to me
7 ‘You are conceiving and are to have a son; now do not drink wine nor beer, nor eat any uncleanness, because the boy shall be God’s devotee from his birth till the day of his death.’”
8 And Manoah invoked Jehovah, and said “O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and instruct us what to do with the boy that is to be born.”
9 And God obeyed Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again while she was sitting out on the range and her husband Manoah was not with her;
10 and the woman ran in haste and told her husband “The man that came to me that day has appeared to me.”
11 And Manoah rose and went after his wife, and came to the man and said to him “Are you the man that spoke to the woman?” and he said “Yes.”
12 And Manoah said “At the time your words come true, what shall be the rule for the boy and what shall he do?”
13 And the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah “The woman must take care about everything that I told her:
14 she must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink wine or beer, nor eat any uncleanness: she must observe all the instructions I gave her.”
15 And Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah “Let us have you stop a while, and let us do a kid for you”;
16 * but the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah “If you have me stop I will not eat bread of yours, and if you do an animal you must offer it as a burnt-offering to Jehovah.” (For Manoah did not know that it was the Angel of Jehovah.)
17 And Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah “What is your name? when your words come true we will pay you honor.”
18 But the Angel of Jehovah said to him “What do you ask my name for, when it is mysterious?”
19 * And Manoah took the kid and the grain-offering and burned them on the stone as an offering to Jehovah Who Works Mysteriously;
20 and as the flame went up off the altar to the sky, the Angel of Jehovah went up in the altar-flame, while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they threw themselves flat on their faces;
21 and the Angel of Jehovah never again appeared to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that it was the Angel of Jehovah.
22 And Manoah said to his wife “We must die, because we have seen God”;
23 * but his wife said to him “If Jehovah chose to cause our death he would not have taken a burnt-offering and grain-offering at our hands, nor showed us these sights, not to say let us hear such a thing as this.”
24 And the woman had a son and named him Samson; and Jehovah blessed the boy as he grew up.
25 And the spirit of Jehovah began to stir him at Dan’s Camp, between Soreah and Eshtaol.
Footnotes
^ 13:4 (beer) The Hebrew word includes beer, mead, and date-wine
^ 13:6 Or the woman came to her husband and told him
^ 13:16 The original does not express the words an animal; codd.* if you do a burnt-offering you must offer it to Jehovah
^ 13:19 Codd. add at the end of this verse while Manoah and his wife looked on
^ 13:23 Var. at our hands, nor given us these directions, nor let us
