Israel’s Disobedience

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,

When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

“Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord, curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

The Call of Gideon

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Jo′ash the Abiez′rite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Mid′ianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.”

And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so.

Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”

And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son.

Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible; I did not ask him whence he was, and he did not tell me his name;

And God listened to the voice of Mano′ah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Mano′ah her husband was not with her.

And the angel of the Lord said to Mano′ah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her beware.

Mano′ah said to the angel of the Lord, “Pray, let us detain you, and prepare a kid for you.”

And the angel of the Lord said to Mano′ah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food; but if you make ready a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Mano′ah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.)

And Mano′ah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?”

And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”

And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Mano′ah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.

The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Mano′ah and to his wife. Then Mano′ah knew that he was the angel of the Lord.