Judges 13:1-15

Legacy Standard Bible

The Birth of Samson

13 Then the sons of Israel ^(A)again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so that Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

² And there was a certain man of ^(B)Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. ^3 (C)Then the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you ^[a]shall be with child and give birth to a son. ⁴ So now, be careful ^(D)not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. ^5 (E)For behold, you ^[b]shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a ^(F)Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “^(G)A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. ⁷ And he said to me, ‘Behold, you ^[c]shall be with child and give birth to a son, so now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, and you shall not eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah entreated Yahweh and said, “O Lord, please let ^(H)the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may instruct us what to do for the boy who is to be born.” ⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and ^(I)the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, and she said to him, “Behold, ^(J)the man who came the other day to me has appeared to me.” ¹¹ Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you ^(K)the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² So Manoah said, “Now your words will come to pass. What shall be the judgment governing the boy and his work?” ¹³ So ^(L)the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “^(M)Let the woman be careful in all that I said. ¹⁴ She should not eat anything that comes from the ^(N)vine, nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵ Then Manoah said to ^(O)the angel of Yahweh, “Please let us delay you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.”