² There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children.^{(A) 3} And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son.^{(B) 4} Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or to eat anything unclean,^{(C) 5} for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”^{(D) 6} Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel^[a] of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name,^{(E) 7} but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. So then, drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸ Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, “O my Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.”^{(F) 9} God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰ So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” ¹¹ Manoah got up and followed his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² Then Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?” ¹³ The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her.^{(G) 14} She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.”^(H)

¹⁵ Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Allow us to detain you and prepare a kid for you.”^{(I) 16} The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.)^{(J) 17} Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”^{(K) 18} But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”^(L)

¹⁹ So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works^[b] wonders.^{[c](M) 20} When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on, and they fell on their faces to the ground.^{(N) 21} The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.^{(O) 22} And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”^{(P) 23} But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things or^[d] announced to us such things as these.”

²⁴ The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.^{(Q) 25} The spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.^(R)

² Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw a Philistine woman at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”^{(A) 3} But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among your kin or among all our^[a] people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she pleases me.” ⁴ His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, for he was seeking a pretext to act against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.^(B)

⁵ Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When he came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion roared at him. ⁶ The spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and he tore the lion apart barehanded as one might tear apart a kid. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.^{(C) 7} Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson.^{(D) 8} After a while he returned to marry her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey. ⁹ He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife wept before him, saying, “You hate me; you do not really love me. You have asked a riddle of my people, but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?”

¹⁷ So he told her his whole secret and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak and be like anyone else.”^(A)