Dual PanelSamson and the Philistines
1ONCE more the Israelites did what was wrong in the eyes of the LORD, and he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2There was a certain man from Zorah of the tribe of Dan whose name was Manoah and whose wife was barren; she had no child.
3The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “Though you are barren and have no child, you will conceive and give birth to a son.
4Now be careful to drink no wine or strong drink, and to eat no forbidden food.
5You will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor must touch his head, for the boy is to be a Nazirite, consecrated to God from birth. He will strike the first blow for Israel's freedom from the power of the Philistines.”
6The woman went and told her husband. “A man of God came to me,” she said to him; “his appearance was that of an angel of God, most terrible to see. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name,
7but he said to me, ‘You are going to conceive and give birth to a son. From now on drink no wine or strong drink and eat no forbidden food, for the boy is to be a Nazirite, consecrated to God from his birth to the day of his death.’”
8Manoah prayed to the LORD, “If it is pleasing to you, Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come again to tell us what we are to do for the boy that is to be born.”
9God heard Manoah's prayer, and the angel of God came again to the woman, as she was sitting in the field. Her husband not being with her,
10the woman ran quickly and said to him, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.”
11Manoah went with her at once and approached the man and said, “Are you the man who talked with my wife?” “Yes,” he replied, “I am.”
12“Now when your words come true,” Manoah said, “what kind of boy will he be and what will he do?”
13The angel of the LORD answered, “Your wife must be careful to do all that I told her:
14she must not taste anything that comes from the vine; she must drink no wine or strong drink, and she must eat no forbidden food. She must do whatever I say.”
15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “May we urge you to stay? Let us prepare a young goat for you.”
16The angel replied, “Though you urge me to stay, I shall not eat your food; but prepare a whole-offering if you will, and offer that to the LORD.” Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD,
17and said to him, “What is your name? For we shall want to honour you when your words come true.”
18The angel of the LORD said to him, “How can you ask my name? It is a name of wonder.”
19Manoah took a young goat with the proper grain-offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to him whose works are full of wonder. While Manoah and his wife were watching,
20the flame went up from the altar towards heaven, and the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell face downward to the ground.
21The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. When Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD,
22he said to his wife, “We are doomed to die, for we have seen God.”
23But she replied, “If the LORD had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted a whole-offering and a grain-offering at our hands; he would not now have let us see and hear all this.”
24The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up in Mahaneh-dan between Zorah and Eshtaol, and the LORD blessed him, and the spirit of the LORD began to move him.
25(13:24)