Samson is born
1The Israelites did bad things again, things that made the Lord angry, and the Lord let the Philistines oppress the Israelites for 40 years. 2Manoah was a man from the town of Sora, from the people of Dan. Manoah's wife could not have children. 3The Angel_of_the_Lord came to her and said: ‘You could not have children, but now you will have a baby boy. 4You must not drink any wine or beer and you must not eat anything that is impure. 5You are pregnant and you will have a son. You must not shave his hair because he will be a Nazirite of God from the time when he is born. He will start to save the Israelites from the Philistines.’
6The woman went to her husband and said to him: ‘A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of the Lord. I was afraid and I did not ask Him where he came from and He did not tell me who He was. 7He told me: “You are pregnant and you will have a son. You must not drink wine or beer and you must not eat anything impure, because the child will be a Nazirite of God from the time when he is born until he dies.” ’
8Manoah prayed and said to God: ‘Please, Lord, send that Man to us again. Let Him tell us what we must do with the boy who will be born.’
9God did what Manoah had asked. The Angel_of_the_Lord came to the woman again. She was sitting in the field and her husband, Manoah, was not with her. 10The woman went to her husband quickly and she said: ‘The Man who came to me has come again.’
11Manoah went with his wife and when they got to the Angel, he asked Him: ‘Are you the Man who came to talk to my wife?’ The Angel_of_the_Lord said: ‘Yes, I am.’ 12Then Manoah said: ‘When the child is born, how must he live and what must he do?’ 13The Angel_of_the_Lord said to Manoah: ‘Your wife must do everything I told her to do. 14She must not eat grapes or drink anything that comes from a vine, no wine or beer, and she must not eat anything that is impure. She must do everything that I told her.’ 15Manoah said to the Angel_of_the_Lord: ‘Please stay here for a while. We want to cook a young goat for You to eat.’ 16The Angel_of_the_Lord said to Manoah: ‘I will stay here if you want, but I will not eat anything. But if you want to sacrifice a burnt-offering for the Lord, then you can do it.’
It was the Angel_of_the_Lord, but Manoah did not know. 17Manoah asked the Angel_of_the_Lord: ‘What is your name? When our son is born we want to honour You.’ 18Then the Angel_of_the_Lord said to him: ‘Why do you ask Me what my name is? You will not understand my name.’
19Manoah took a young goat and some wheat. He burnt it on a rock and he gave it to the Lord God as an offering. It was a sacrifice to God. Then the Lord did a miracle, and Manoah and his wife saw it. 20The flame on the altar went up into the sky and the Angel_of_the_Lord went up in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they bowed low with their faces to the ground. 21The Angel_of_the_Lord did not come back to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew it was the Angel_of_the_Lord. 22Manoah said to his wife: ‘I am sure that we are going to die, because we have seen God.’
23But his wife said to him: ‘No, the Lord does not want to kill us. He accepted our burnt-offering and grain-offering. And He showed us all these things. He would not have done it if He wanted to kill us.’
24Later Manoah's wife had a son and she named him Samson. He grew up and the Lord blessed him. 25The Spirit_of_the_Lord came into Samson when he was in Mahaneh-Dan, between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol.
