Judges 13:1–15

The Birth of Samson

13And the people of Israel again ^udid what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them ^vinto the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

²There was a certain man of ^wZorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. ^xAnd his wife was barren and had no children. ^3yAnd 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 ^zand drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, ⁵for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. ^aNo razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be ^za Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall ^bbegin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, ^c“A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. ^dI did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, ⁷but he said to me, ^e‘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, ^fwhat 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, ^gneither 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 ^hprepare a young goat for you.”