1Again the people of Israel did what Yahweh considered evil. So Yahweh allowed the Philistines to rule over them for 40 years.
2There was a man from Zorah, from the family of the Danites, named Manoah. His wife was unable to have children.
3An angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, "Listen, even though you are unable to have children, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son."
4So now, be careful not to drink wine or strong alcoholic drinks, and do not eat anything unclean.
5Because you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. No razor should ever touch his head, because the boy will be set apart to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will be the one to begin rescuing Israel from the power of the Philistines."
6Then the woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of an angel of God, very awe-inspiring. I didn't ask him where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name."
7But he told me, 'Listen, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. So now, do not drink wine or strong alcoholic drinks. Do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be set apart to God as a Nazirite from birth until the day he dies.'"
8Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh, saying, "Oh, Lord, please let the man of God you sent come back to us and teach us what we should do for the child who will be born."
9God listened to Manoah's prayer, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was sitting in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her.
10The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband, saying, "Look, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again!"
11Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He replied, "I am."
12Manoah said, "Now let your words come true. What should be the child's way of life and what will be his work?"
13The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "The woman must be careful to do everything I told her.
14She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink wine or strong alcoholic drinks, nor eat anything unclean. She must obey everything I commanded her."
15Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Please stay with us so we can prepare a young goat for you."
16The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Even if you make me stay, I will not eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh." (Manoah did not realize that he was an angel of Yahweh.)
17Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "What is your name, so that when your words come true, we may honor you?"
18Yahweh's angel asked him, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding."
19So Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them on a rock to Yahweh. As Manoah and his wife watched, the angel did an amazing thing.
20When the flame went up from the altar into the sky, Yahweh's angel went up in the flame. Manoah and his wife saw this, and they immediately fell face down on the ground.
21Yahweh's angel did not appear to Manoah and his wife again. Then Manoah realized that it had been Yahweh's angel.
22Manoah said to his wife, "We will surely die, because we have seen God."
23But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh had wanted to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted the burnt offering and grain offering from us. He wouldn't have shown us all these things, and he wouldn't have told us these things at this time."
24The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.
25The Spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.