1 Once more the children of Israel did evil in the LORD's sight, and the LORD handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, named Manoah. His wife was barren; she had never given birth.
3 The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and told her, "Look, you are barren and have not given birth, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
4 So take care now not to drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean.
5 For you are going to conceive and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, since the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin to rescue Israel from the hand of the Philistines."
6 The woman went and spoke to her husband: "A man of God came to me; he looked like the angel of God, most fearsome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
7 He told me, 'You are going to conceive and give birth to a son. So now, drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day he dies.'"
8 Manoah pleaded with the LORD: "O Lord, please let the man of God you sent come back to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who is to be born."
9 God heard Manoah's voice, and the angel of God came back to the woman while she was sitting in the field; her husband Manoah was not with her.
10 The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband. She said to him, "The man who came to me that day has just appeared to me!"
11 Manoah got up and went after his wife. He came to the man and asked him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" "I am," he said.
12 Manoah said, "Now when your word comes true, what is to be the rule for the boy, and what is he to do?"
13 The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "The woman must take care to do all I told her.
14 She must not eat anything that comes from the vine; she must not drink wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean. Everything I commanded her she must observe."
15 Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Let us keep you here, please, while we get a young goat ready for you."
16 The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you keep me, I will not eat of your bread. But if you get a burnt offering ready, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.)
17 Manoah asked the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?"
18 The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why ask my name? It is wonderful."
19 Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them on the rock to the LORD, and he did a wonderful thing as Manoah and his wife looked on.
20 As the flame rose from the altar toward the heavens, the angel of the LORD rose up in the altar's flame. Manoah and his wife were looking on, and they fell facedown to the ground.
21 The angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah and his wife any more. Then Manoah understood that it had been the angel of the LORD.
22 Manoah said to his wife, "We are going to die, surely, because we have seen God."
23 But his wife told him, "If the LORD had been pleased to kill us, he would not have taken a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, and he would not have shown us all these things or let us hear such things now."
24 The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up, and the LORD blessed him.
25 The Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.