Judges 13

The Israelites again did what God had said was wicked. So God allowed the Philistines to rule over them for 40 years.

There was a man whose name was Manoah who lived in the town of Zorah. He belonged to the tribe of Dan. His wife could not have children. \*

One day, an angel representing God appeared to Manoah’s wife. The angel told her, “Please pay attention to this. You have not been able to have children. But you will soon become pregnant and have a son.

Please make sure that from now until he is born, you do not drink any wine or beer. Also, do not eat any food that God has said is unclean.

You must do this because you are going to become pregnant and have a son {who must not drink or eat these things}. You must dedicate him to God as a Nazirite as soon as you give birth to him. Therefore you must never cut his hair. He will begin to stop the Philistines from ruling the Israelites.” \*

The woman ran and told her husband, “A man from God came to me. He looked like an angel from God. Looking at him made me afraid. I did not ask where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

But he told me, ‘Pay attention to this. You will become pregnant and have a son. From now until he is born, do not drink any wine or beer. Do not eat any food that God has said is unclean. You must do this because you are to dedicate your son to God as a Nazirite as soon as you give birth to him. He must continue to be a Nazirite for his entire life.’” \*

Then Manoah prayed to God, “Please, Lord, let the man you sent who looked like an angel come back to us. We want him to teach us how to raise the son my wife will have.”

God did what Manoah asked. The angel representing God came again to the woman while she was out working in the field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. \*

The woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Listen to this! The man who appeared to me the other day has come back!”

Manoah went out with his wife right away. When he came to the man, he asked him, “Are you the one who talked to my wife?” The man replied, “Yes, I am.” \*

Manoah asked him, “When what you have said comes true, what rules should the boy follow? What work should he do?”

The angel representing God said to Manoah, “Your wife must be careful to do everything I told her.

She must not eat any grapes or raisins or drink grape juice. She must not drink any wine or beer. And she must not eat any food that God has said is unclean. She must obey everything I have told her.” \*

Manoah said to the angel, “Please stay here for a while. We would like to prepare a young goat for you to eat.”

The angel replied, “All right, I will stay, but I will not eat a meal. If you want to prepare something, you should offer it as a burnt offering to God.” Now Manoah did not realize that this was an angel representing God. \*

Then Manoah asked the angel, “What is your name? We want to honor you when what you have said comes true.”

The angel told him, “You should not ask me my name. It is a mysterious name that I do not tell other people.” \*

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to God. As Manoah and his wife were watching, the angel did something amazing.

As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the angel went up in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they knelt down and put their faces to the ground {as an act of humble worship}. \*

The angel did not appear to Manoah and his wife again. Then Manoah realized that the angel had been representing God.

Manoah said to his wife, “We have seen God, so we are going to die!” \*

But his wife said to him, “If God had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering {to show that he is pleased with us}. He also would not have done this remarkable sign for us. And he would not have told us that we were going to have a baby even before I conceived him and gave birth to him.” \*

Then the woman did have a son{, just as the angel had said}. She named him Samson. As the boy was growing up, God did good things for him {to show that he was going to use him to help the Israelites}.

Samson went to live in the town of Mahaneh Dan, between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. There the Spirit of God began to make him want to stop the Philistines from ruling the Israelites. \*