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

⁸ Then Manoah pleaded with the Lord and said, “Lord, please let ^(G)the man of God whom You have sent come to us again so that he may 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 ^(H)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 hurried and ran, and told her ^[c]husband, “Behold, ^(I)the man who ^[d]came the other day has appeared to me!” ¹¹ So Manoah got up and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you ^(J)the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² Then Manoah said, “Now when your words ^[e]are fulfilled, what shall be the boy’s way of life and his vocation?” ¹³ And ^(K)the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “^(L)The woman shall pay attention ^[f]to all that I said. ¹⁴ She shall not eat anything that comes from the ^(M)vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; she shall keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵ Then Manoah said to ^(N)the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” ¹⁶ But the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, ^(O)I will not eat your ^[g]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 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “^(P)What is your name, so that when your words ^[h]are fulfilled, we may honor you?” ¹⁸ But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, for it is ^[i](Q)wonderful?” ¹⁹ So ^(R)Manoah took the young goat along with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord; and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. ²⁰ For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they ^(S)fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ Now the angel of the Lord did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. ^(T)Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. ²² So Manoah said to his wife, “^(U)We will certainly die, for we have seen God.” ²³ But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have ^(V)shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.”

²⁴ So the woman gave birth to a son, and named him Samson; and the ^(W)child grew up and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ And ^(X)the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him when he was in ^[j](Y)Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

⁹ Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of ^(A)the ^[a]temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ She, ^[b]greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. ¹¹ And she ^(B)made a vow and said, “Lord of armies, if You will indeed ^(C)look on the affliction of Your bond-servant and remember me, and not forget Your bond-servant, but will give Your bond-servant a ^[c]son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and ^(D)a razor shall never come on his head.”

⁸ Now it happened that while ^(A)he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot ^(B)to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer ^(C)outside at the hour of the incense offering. ¹¹ Now ^(D)an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. ¹² Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel, and ^(E)fear ^[a]gripped him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “^(F)Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and ^(G)you shall ^[b]name him John. ¹⁴ You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice over his birth. ¹⁵ For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will ^(H)drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit ^[c]while still in his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ And he will ^(I)turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And it is he who will ^(J)go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of ^(K)Elijah, ^(L)to turn the hearts of fathers back to their children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to ^(M)make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸ Now Paul, when he had remained many days longer, ^(A)took leave of ^(B)the brothers and sisters and sailed away to ^(C)Syria, and ^(D)Priscilla and ^(E)Aquila were with him. ^[a]Paul first ^(F)had his hair cut at ^(G)Cenchrea, for he was keeping a vow.

¹⁷ After we arrived in Jerusalem, ^(A)the brothers and sisters received us gladly. ¹⁸ And the following day Paul went in with us to ^[a](B)James, and all ^(C)the elders were present. ¹⁹ After he had greeted them, he ^(D)began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ^(E)ministry. ²⁰ And when they heard about them, they began ^(F)glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many ^[b]thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all ^(G)zealous for the Law; ²¹ and they have been told about you, that you are ^(H)teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them ^(I)not to circumcise their children nor to ^[c]walk according to ^(J)the customs. ²² So what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³ Therefore, do ^[d]as we tell you: we have four men who ^(K)have a ^[e]vow upon themselves; ²⁴ take them along and ^(L)purify yourself together with them, and ^[f]pay their expenses so that they may ^(M)shave their ^[g]heads; and then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also conform, keeping the Law.