131 Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord , so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years . 2 There was a certain man of Zorah , of the family of the Danites , whose name was Manoah ; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. 3 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold now , you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son . 4 "Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink , nor eat any unclean thing . 5 " For behold , you shall conceive and give birth to a son , and no razor shall come upon his head , for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb ; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines ." 6 Then the woman came and told her husband , saying , " A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God , very awesome . And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name . 7 "But he said to me, 'Behold , you shall conceive and give birth to a son , and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing , for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death .' "
8 Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said , "O Lord , please e let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born ." 9 God listened to the voice of Manoah ; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field , but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband , "Behold , the man who came the other day has appeared to me." 11 Then Manoah arose and followed e his wife , and when he came to the man he said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman ?" And he said , "I am." 12 Manoah said , "Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy's mode of life and his vocation ?" 13 So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah , " Let the woman pay attention to all that I said . 14 "She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink , nor eat any unclean thing ; let her observe all that I commanded ."
15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord , "Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young e goat e for you." 16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah , "Though you detain me, I will not eat your food , but if you prepare a burnt offering , then offer it to the Lord ." For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord . 17 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord , " What is your name , so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?" 18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, "Why do you ask my name , seeing it is wonderful ?" 19 So Manoah took the young e goat e with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord , and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven , that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar . When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground . 21 Now the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah or his wife again e . Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord . 22 So Manoah said to his wife , " We will surely die , for we have seen God ." 23 But his wife said to him, "If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands , nor would He have shown us all these things , nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time ."
24 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named e him Samson ; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan , between Zorah and Eshtaol .
