Judges 13:1–15

The Birth of Samson

¹Then the sons of Israel ^aagain did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so that Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

²And there was a certain man of ^aZorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children.

^3aThen the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you ¹shall be with child and give birth to a son.

⁴“So now, be careful ^anot to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.

⁵“^aFor behold, you ¹shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a ^bNazirite 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, saying, “^aA man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

⁷“And he said to me, ‘Behold, you ¹shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

⁸Then Manoah entreated Yahweh and said, “O Lord, please let ^athe man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may instruct us what to do for the boy who is to be born.”

⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and ^athe angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, and she said to him, “Behold, ^athe man who came the other day to me has appeared to me.”

¹¹Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you ^athe man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.”

¹²So Manoah said, “Now your words will come to pass. What shall be the judgment governing the boy and his work?”

¹³So ^athe angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “^bLet the woman be careful in all that I said.

¹⁴“She should not eat anything that comes from the ^avine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵Then Manoah said to ^athe angel of Yahweh, “Please let us delay you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.”