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Philistines Oppress Again

¹ Now Israel ^(C1)again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

² And there was a certain man of ^(C1)Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was infertile and had no children.^3 (C1)And the ^(F1)Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold, you are infertile and have no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.⁴ "Therefore, be careful not to ^(C1)drink wine or any other intoxicating drink, and do not eat anything ceremonially unclean.⁵ "^(C1)For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a ^(F1)(C2)Nazirite dedicated to God from birth; and he shall begin to rescue Israel from the hands of the Philistines."⁶ Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, "^(C1)A Man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the Angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask Him where he came from, and he did not 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 any other intoxicating drink, nor eat anything ceremonially unclean, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.'"

⁸ Then Manoah pleaded with the LORD and said, "O Lord, please let ^(C1)the Man of God whom You sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do for the boy who is to be born."⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and ^(C1)the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, "Behold, ^(C1)the Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me."¹¹ Then Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the Man and said to him, "Are you ^(C1)the Man who spoke to this woman?" He said, "I am."¹² And Manoah said, "Now when your words come true, what shall be the boy's manner of life, and his vocation?"^13 (C1)The Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "^(C2)The woman must pay attention to everything that I said to her.¹⁴ "She may not eat anything that comes from the ^(C1)vine nor drink wine or any other intoxicating drink, nor eat anything ceremonially unclean. She shall observe everything that I commanded her."

¹⁵ Then Manoah said to ^(C1)the Angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you and let us prepare a young goat for you to eat."¹⁶ The Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain me, ^(C1)I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, 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, "^(C1)What is your name, so that when your words come true, we may honor you?"¹⁸ But the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is ^(C1)wonderful (miraculous)?" ^(VR1)19 So ^(C1)Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD, and He performed miracles while Manoah and his wife looked on.²⁰ For when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the LORD ascended in the altar flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this they ^(C1)fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ The Angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah or his wife. ^(C1)Then Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the LORD.²² So Manoah said to his wife, "^(C1)We will certainly die, because we have seen God."²³ But his sensible wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have ^(C1)shown us all these things, nor would He have announced such things as these at this time."

²⁴ So the woman in due time gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the ^(C1)boy grew and the LORD blessed him.²⁵ And ^(C1)the Spirit of the LORD began to ^(F1)stir him at times in ^(F2)(C2)Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.