Judges
13
- Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes
of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines
for forty years.
- A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from
the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless.
- The angel of the LORD appeared to her and
said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and
have a son.
- Now see to it that you drink no wine or other
fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean,
- because you will conceive and give birth
to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite,
set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from
the hands of the Philistines."
- Then the woman went to her husband and told
him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome.
I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name.
- But he said to me, 'You will conceive and
give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and
do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from
birth until the day of his death.'"
- Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: "O Lord,
I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to
bring up the boy who is to be born."
- God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came
again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah
was not with her.
- The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's
here! The man who appeared to me the other day !"
- Manoah got up and followed his wife. When
he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?"
"I am," he said.
- So Manoah asked him, "When your words
are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work ?"
- The angel of the LORD answered, "Your
wife must do all that I have told her.
- She must not eat anything that comes from
the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything
unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."
- Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "We
would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you."
- The angel of the LORD replied, "Even
though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare
a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not realize that
it was the angel of the LORD.)
- Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the
LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes
true ?"
- He replied, "Why do you ask my name?
It is beyond understanding."
- Then Manoah took a young goat, together with
the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD
did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched:
- As the flame blazed up from the altar toward
heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and
his wife fell with their faces to the ground.
- When the angel of the LORD did not show himself
again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the
LORD.
- "We are doomed to die!" he said
to his wife. "We have seen God!"
- But his wife answered, "If the LORD
had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain
offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this."
- The woman gave birth to a boy and named him
Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him,
- and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir
him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
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