Judges 13
13
1And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: 5for, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 6Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible; and I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: 7but he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb to the day of his death.
8Then Manoah entreated Jehovah, and said, Oh, Lord, I pray thee, let the man of God whom thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 9And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10And the woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. 11And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. 12And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass: what shall be the ordering of the child, and how shall we do unto him? 13And the angel of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. 14She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe.
15And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, I pray thee, let us detain thee, that we may make ready a kid for thee. 16And the angel of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wilt make ready a burnt-offering, thou must offer it unto Jehovah. For Manoah knew not that he was the angel of Jehovah. 17And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that, when thy words come to pass, we may do thee honor? 18And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is wonderful? 19So Manoah took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it upon the rock unto Jehovah: and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. 20For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of Jehovah ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21But the angel of Jehovah did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Jehovah. 22And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23But his wife said unto him, If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these. 24And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and Jehovah blessed him. 25And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
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Judges 13: ASV
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Judges 13
13
Samson Is Born
1Once again the Israelites started disobeying the Lord. So he let the Philistines take control of Israel for 40 years.
2Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was not able to have children, 3-5#Nu 6.1-5. but one day an angel from the Lord appeared to her and said:
You have never been able to have any children, but very soon you will be pregnant and have a son. He will belong to God#13.3-5 belong to God: The Hebrew text has “be a Nazirite of God.” Nazirites were dedicated to God and had to follow special rules to stay that way (see Numbers 6.1,21). from the day he is born, so his hair must never be cut. And even before he is born, you must not drink any wine or beer or eat any food forbidden by God's laws.
Your son will begin to set Israel free from the Philistines.
6She went to Manoah and said, “A prophet who looked like an angel of God came and talked to me. I was so frightened, that I didn't even ask where he was from. He didn't tell me his name, 7but he did say that I'm going to have a baby boy. I'm not supposed to drink any wine or beer or eat any food forbidden by God's laws. Our son will belong to God for as long as he lives.”
8Then Manoah prayed, “Our Lord, please send that prophet again and let him tell us what to do for the son we are going to have.”
9God answered Manoah's prayer, and the angel went back to Manoah's wife while she was resting in the fields. Manoah wasn't there at the time, 10so she found him and said, “That same man is here again! He's the one I saw the other day.”
11Manoah went with his wife and asked the man, “Are you the one who spoke to my wife?”
“Yes, I am,” he answered.
12Manoah then asked, “When your promise comes true, what rules must he obey and what will be his work?”
13“Your wife must be careful to do everything I told her,” the Lord's angel answered. 14“She must not eat or drink anything made from grapes. She must not drink wine or beer or eat anything forbidden by God's laws. I told her exactly what to do.”
15“Please,” Manoah said, “stay here with us for just a little while, and we'll fix a young goat for you to eat.” 16Manoah didn't realize that he was really talking to one of the Lord's angels.
The angel answered, “I can stay for a little while, although I won't eat any of your food. But if you would like to offer the goat as a sacrifice to the Lord, that would be fine.”
17Manoah said, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you after our son is born.”
18“No,” the angel replied. “You don't need to know my name. And if you did, you couldn't understand it.”
19So Manoah took a young goat over to a large rock he had chosen for an altar, and he built a fire on the rock. Then he killed the goat, and offered it with some grain as a sacrifice to the Lord. But then an amazing thing happened. 20The fire blazed up toward the sky, and the Lord's angel went up toward heaven in the fire. Manoah and his wife bowed down low when they saw what happened.
21Although the angel didn't appear to them again, they realized he was one of the Lord's angels. 22Manoah said, “We have seen an angel.#13.22 angel: The Hebrew text has “god,” which can be used of God or of other supernatural beings. Now we're going to die.”#13.22 We have seen an angel. Now we're going to die: Some people believed that if they saw the Lord or one of the Lord's angels, they would die.
23“The Lord isn't going to kill us,” Manoah's wife responded. “The Lord accepted our sacrifice and grain offering, and he let us see something amazing. Besides, he told us that we're going to have a son.”
24Later, Manoah's wife did give birth to a son, and she named him Samson. As the boy grew, the Lord blessed him. 25Then, while Samson was staying at Dan's Camp#13.25 Dan's Camp: Or “Mahaneh-Dan.” between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, the Spirit of the Lord took control of him.
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