Judges 13:1-10 ▼

1 Some time later, the Israelis again practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, so the LORD handed them over into the domination of the Philistines for 40 years.

2 There was one man from Zorah, from the family of the descendants of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Since his wife was infertile, she hadn't borne children.

3 One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. |Hello!| he greeted her. |Though you are infertile at this time and haven't borne a child, you're about to conceive and give birth to a son.

4 So be sure that you don't drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don't eat anything unclean

5 because—surprise!—you're going to conceive and give birth to a son! Don't put a razor to his head, because the young man will be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from inside the womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from domination by the Philistines.|

6 Then the woman went to tell her husband. She said, |A man of God appeared to me. He looked like what an angel of God would look like—very frightening. I didn't ask him where he had come from and he didn't tell me his name.

7 He told me, 'Surprise!—you're going to conceive and give birth to a son!' and as for you, 'Be sure that you don't drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don't eat anything unclean,' 'because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from inside the womb' until the day he dies.|

8 So Manoah prayed to the LORD, |Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born.|

9 God listened to Manoah's request, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting out in the pasture. But her husband Manoah wasn't with her,

10 so the woman ran quickly to tell her husband, |Look! The man who came the other day appeared to me!|