1The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
2There was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife could not have children; she had borne none.
3The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Look, you cannot have children and have borne none. But you will become pregnant and give birth to a son."
4"So now be careful, please. Do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean."
5"For look, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb. He will begin to rescue Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
6Then the woman came and told her husband. She said, "A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of an angel of God, very terrible. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name."
7"But he said to me, 'Look, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. So now drink no wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean. For the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'"
8Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, "My Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again, and teach us what we are to do for the child who will be born."
9God listened to the voice of Manoah. The angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
10The woman hurried and ran and told her husband. She said to him, "Look, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again."
11Manoah got up and followed his wife. He came to the man and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He said, "I am."
12Manoah said, "Now let your words come true. How shall we raise the child, and what shall we do for him?"
13The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Let the woman be careful of everything I said to her."
14"She must not eat anything that comes from the vine. She must not drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean. Let her keep all that I commanded her."
15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us keep you here until we have got a young goat ready for you."
16The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Even if you keep me here, I will not eat your food. But if you will offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the LORD.
17Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honour you?"
18The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name like this, since it is secret?"
19So Manoah took a young goat with a food offering, and offered it on a rock to the LORD. The angel did a wonderful thing, and Manoah and his wife looked on.
20When the flame went up towards heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife saw it, and they fell with their faces to the ground.
21The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.
22Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die, because we have seen God."
23But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a food offering from our hands. He would not have shown us all these things, and he would not have told us such things as these at this time."
24The woman gave birth to a son and called his name Samson. The child grew, and the LORD blessed him.