Judges 13:1–15

The Birth of Samson

13Again the children of Israel ^adid evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them ^binto the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

²Now there was a certain man from ^cZorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. ³And the ^dAngel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴Now therefore, please be careful ^enot to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. ⁵For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no ^frazor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be ^ga Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall ^hbegin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

⁶So the woman came and told her husband, saying, ⁱ“A Man of God came to me, and His ^jcountenance ¹was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I ^kdid not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. ⁷And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything 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 my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.”

⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, “Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!”

¹¹So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, “Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?”

And He said, “I am.”

¹²Manoah said, “Now let Your words come to pass! What will be the boy’s rule of life, and his work?”

¹³So the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. ¹⁴She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, ^lnor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

¹⁵Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “Please ^mlet us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You.”