Judges Chapter 13

The Samson Cycle

¹ Israel sinned again, and the LORD gave them to the Philistines for 40 years.

² A man named Manoah in Zorah from the tribe of Dan had a wife that couldn’t have children. ³ The angel of the LORD appeared to her,

“You haven’t been able to have children, but you’ll have a son. ⁴ Make sure not to drink wine or alcohol, or eat anything ceremonially unclean. ⁵ Your son is not to shave his head. He’ll be a Nazirite to me from birth and begin delivering Israel from the Philistines.”

⁶ She went and told her husband,

“A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, really awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷ He said, ‘You’ll have a son; don’t drink wine or alcohol, or eat anything ceremonially unclean, because he’ll be a Nazirite to me from birth to death.’” Jud 13:1-7

⁸ Manoah pleaded with the LORD, “Please let the man you sent come again and teach us what to do with the boy.” ⁹ His angel came again while she was sitting alone in the field. ¹⁰ She ran and told Manoah, “The man that came to me the other day has appeared to me.”

¹¹ Manoah got up and followed her, “Are you the man that talked to her?”

“Yes.”

¹² “When your promise comes true, how should the boy live? What’s he supposed to do?”

^{13 “}Make sure to do everything I told her. ¹⁴ She’s not to eat anything from the grapevine. Don’t let her drink wine or alcohol, or eat anything ceremonially unclean.”

¹⁵ “Let me detain you and fix you a kid.”

¹⁶ “If you detain me, I won’t eat your food. If you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” (Manoah didn’t know he was the angel of the LORD.)

¹⁷ “What’s your name, so when your promise come true, we can honor you?”

¹⁸ “Why ask what my name is? You can’t understand it.”

¹⁹ Manoah took the kid with its grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD, who worked wonders while Manoah and his wife watched. ²⁰ When the flame went up from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in it. They fell on their faces on the ground. Jud 13:8-20

²¹ The angel of the LORD never appeared to them again. Then Manoah realized he was the angel of the LORD. ²² He told his wife, “We going to die! We’ve seen God.” ²³ But she said, “If he meant to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have shown us those things or told us such things.” ²⁴ She had a son and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him. ²⁵ The Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. Jud 13:21-25