Chapter 13

¹ And the children of Israel yet again committed iniquity before the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Phylistines forty years.

² And there was a man of Saraa, of the family of the kindred of Dan, and his name was Manoë, and his wife was barren, and bore not. ³ And an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, thou art barren and hast not born; yet thou shalt conceive a son. ⁴ And now be very cautious, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing; ⁵ for behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and there shall come no ¹razor upon his head, for the child shall be a ²Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Phylistines.

⁶ And the woman went in, and spoke to her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his appearance was as of an angel of God, very dreadful; and I did not ask him whence he ³was, and he did not tell me his name. ⁷ And he said to me, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing; for the child shall be holy to God from the womb until the day of his death.

⁸ And Manoë prayed to the Lord and said, ⁴I pray thee, O Lord my lord, concerning the man of God whom thou sentest; let him now come to us once more, and teach us what we shall do to the child about to be born.

⁹ And the Lord heard the voice of Manoë,

336

and the angel of God came yet again to the woman; and she sat in the field, and Manoë her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ And the woman hasted, and ran, and brought word to her husband, and said to him, Behold the man who came in the other day to me has appeared to me.

¹¹ And Manoë arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Art thou the man that spoke to the woman? and the angel said, I am. ¹² And Manoë said, Now shall thy word come to pass: what shall be the ⁵ordering of the child, and our dealings with him? ¹³ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, Of all things concerning which I spoke to the woman, she shall beware. ¹⁴ She shall eat of nothing that comes of the vine ⁶yielding wine, and let her not drink wine or strong liquor, and let her not eat anything unclean: all things that I have charged her she shall observe.

¹⁵ And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, Let us detain thee here, and prepare before thee a kid of the goats. ¹⁶ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, If thou shouldest detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wouldest offer a whole-burnt-offering, to the Lord thou shalt offer it: for Manoë knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. ¹⁷ And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy word shall come to pass, we may glorify thee? ¹⁸ And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why dost thou thus ask after my name; whereas it is ⁷wonderful? ¹⁹ And Manoë took a kid of the goats and its meat-offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord; and the angel wrought a ⁸distinct work, and Manoë and his wife were looking on. ²⁰ And it came to pass when the flame went up above the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord went up in the flame; and Manoë and his wife were looking, and they fell upon their face to the earth. ²¹ And the angel appeared no more to Manoë and to his wife: then Manoë knew that this was an angel of the Lord. ²² And Manoë said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. ²³ But his wife said to him, If the Lord were pleased to slay us, he would not have received of our hand a whole-burnt-offering and a meat-offering; and he would not have shewn us all these things, neither would he have caused us to hear all these things ⁹as at this time.

²⁴ And the woman brought forth a son, and she called his name Sampson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ And the Spirit of the Lord began to go out with him in the camp of Dan, and between Saraa and ¹⁰Esthaol.