Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Remembering the Covenant with David, and Sorrow for Lost Blessings

A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.^[a]

² There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; his wife was infertile and did not bear children. ³ And an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and he said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have not borne children, but you will conceive and bear a son. ⁴ So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, ⁵ because you will conceive and bear a son. No razor will touch^[a] his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God^[b] from birth.^[c] And it is he who will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶ And the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name. ⁷ And he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son, so then, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth^[d] until the day of his death.’”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh and said, “Excuse me, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent again come to us and teach us what we should do concerning the boy who will be born.” ⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. ¹⁰ The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and she said to him, “Look! The man who came to me the other day appeared to me.” ¹¹ So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man that spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.” ¹² And Manoah said to him, “Now when your words come true,^[e] what will be the boy’s manner of life^[f] and work?” ¹³ And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Let the woman be attentive to all that I said. ¹⁴ She should not eat of anything that comes from the vine, or drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean; she should keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵ And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “Please stay,^[g] and let us prepare a young goat^[h] for you.” ¹⁶ The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he was an angel of Yahweh).” ¹⁷ And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, “What is your name so that when your words come true we may honor you?” ¹⁸ But the angel of Yahweh said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”

¹⁹ And Manoah took the young goat^[i] and the grain offering, and he offered it to Yahweh on the rock, to the one who performs miracles.^[j] And Manoah and his wife were watching. ²⁰ And when the flame went up toward the heaven from the altar, the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar to heaven while Manoah and his wife were watching. And they fell on their faces to the ground. ²¹ The angel of Yahweh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, and then Manoah knew that he was a messenger^[k] of Yahweh. ²² And Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die because we have seen God.” ²³ But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh wanted to kill us he would not have taken^[l] from our hand the burnt offering and the grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us things such as these.”

²⁴ The woman bore a son, and she called him Samson; the boy grew big, and Yahweh blessed him.

Different Opinions About Jesus

⁴⁰ Then, when they^[a] heard these words, some from the crowd began to say,^[b] “This man is truly the Prophet!” ⁴¹ Others were saying, “This man is the Christ!” But others were saying, “No, for the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he?^{[c] 42} Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. ⁴⁴ And some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ So the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees. And they said to them, “Why^[d] did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶ The officers replied, “Never has a man spoken like this!” ⁴⁷ Then the Pharisees replied to them, “You have not also been deceived, have you?^{[e] 48} None^[f] of the rulers or of the Pharisees have believed in him, have they?^{[g] 49} But this crowd who does not know the law is accursed!”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, the one who came to him previously—who was one of them—said to them, ⁵¹ “Our law does not condemn a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”^{[h] 52} They answered and said to him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you?^[i] Investigate and see that a prophet does not arise from Galilee!”