Judges 13

13 ¹Again the Israelites did evil in our Father's eyes, so he gave them into the Philistines' hand for forty years.

²A man named Manoah, from Zorah of the Danite clan, had a barren wife who bore no children.

³The messenger of our Father appeared to the woman and said to her, "You are barren, childless, but will conceive and bear a son. ⁴Now then, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, ⁵for you will conceive and bear a son. No razor will touch his head, for the boy will be our Father's Nazirite from the womb, and will begin to save Israel from the Philistines' hand."

⁶The woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me; his appearance was like the appearance of the messenger of our Father, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name." ⁷But he said to me, "You will conceive and bear a son. Now do not drink wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of our Father from the womb until the day of his death."

⁸Then Manoah pleaded with our Father: "Please, my Sovereign Father, let the man of God you sent come to us again and teach us what to do for the boy to be born."

⁹Our Father heard Manoah's voice; the messenger of our Father came again to the woman sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰The woman ran quickly and told her husband, "Look, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me!"

¹¹Manoah got up, followed his wife, and came to the man. He asked, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" "I am," he said.

¹²Manoah said, "When your words come true, what will govern the boy's life and work?"

¹³The messenger of our Father said to Manoah, "She must be careful of all I told her. ¹⁴She must eat nothing from the grapevine, drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. She must keep all I commanded her."

¹⁵Manoah said to our Father's messenger, "Please let us hold you, and we'll prepare a young goat for you."

¹⁶The messenger of our Father told Manoah, "Even if you hold me, I won't eat your food; but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to our Father." (Manoah didn't know the visitor was our Father's messenger.).

¹⁷Manoah asked the messenger of our Father, "What is your name, so we may honor you when your words come true?"

¹⁸The messenger of our Father said to him, "Why ask my name? It's beyond understanding."

¹⁹So Manoah took the young goat and grain offering and offered them on the rock to our Father, who does wonders, while Manoah and his wife watched. ²⁰As the altar's flame rose toward heaven, the messenger of our Father rose in the altar's flame. Manoah and his wife saw and fell facedown to the ground. ²¹The messenger of our Father appeared no more to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew he was the messenger of our Father. ²²"We will surely die," Manoah said to his wife, "for we have seen our Father!"

²³His wife told him, "If our Father meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, shown us all this, or let us hear this now." ²⁴The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and our Father blessed him. ²⁵And the Spirit of our Father began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.