13 The Israelis continued to do what Yahweh considered as evil, so he allowed the Philistines to oppress them for forty years. 2 Now there was a man named Manoah from Zorah, of the families of the Danites. His wife was barren so they had no children. 3 One day, Yahweh’s messenger appeared to the wife and told her, “Listen, please, you are barren and have never given birth, but you will conceive and have a son. 4 Now take care that you surely don’t drink wine or strong drink, and that you don’t eat anything prohibited by our rules, 5 because you’ll definitely become pregnant and will give birth to a son. His hair must never be cut because he’ll be a Nazirite to God from his conception. He will begin to rescue Israel from the oppression of the Philistines.”[ref]

6 Then the woman went and explained to her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like one of God’s messengers—extremely terrifying—so I didn’t like to ask him where he’d come from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 Then he told me, ‘You’re definitely pregnant and you’ll give birth to a son. So now, you mustn’t drink wine or strong drink, and you mustn’t eat anything prohibited by our rules, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from conception until the day of his death.’ ”

8 Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh, “Oh please, my master, please let the man of God that you sent before, come back to us again so he can instruct us about what we must do for this boy who’s going to be born.” 9 The true God listened to Manoah’s request, and God’s messenger came to the woman again when she was sitting out in the field, but her husband Manoah wasn’t with her, 10 so she quickly ran and told her husband, “Look. The man has appeared again who came to me that day.” 11 So Manoah followed his wife, and when he came to the man, he asked him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife before?”

“Yes, it was me,” he replied.

12 “Now may your words come true,” said Manoah. “How should we bring up the boy, and what will his work be?”

13 “You wife must carefully follow everything I told her,” Yahweh’s messenger replied. 14 “She mustn’t eat or drink anything that comes from the grapevine. She mustn’t drink wine or strong drink, and she mustn’t eat anything prohibited by our rules. She must do everything that I’ve instructed her.”

15 “Please stay a little longer,” Manoah asked Yahweh’s messenger, “so that we can prepare a meal of tender goat meat to honour your presence.”

16 “Even if I stayed longer, I wouldn’t eat your food,” Yahweh’s messenger replied. “But if you wanted to prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you may offer it.” (Because Manoah didn’t know that the messenger had come from Yahweh.) 17 “What’s your name,” Manoah asked, “so that we can honour you when your words come true?”

18 “Why are you asking about my name,” Yahweh’s messenger replied. “You simply couldn’t understand.”

19 Then Manoah got their young goat and the other requirements for the offering, and he presented a sacrifice to Yahweh on the rock. Then an amazing thing happened[fn] while Manoah and his wife watched— 20 when the flames went up into the sky from the altar, Yahweh’s messenger went up in the flames while Manoah and his wife were watching. When they saw that, they quickly bowed right down to the ground. 21 After that, Manoah and his wife never saw him again, but now Manoah knew that he was Yahweh’s messenger.

22 Manoah said to his wife, “We’ll definitely die now because we’ve seen God!”

23 But his wife replied to him, “If Yahweh had wanted to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the entire burnt offering and the grain offering. He wouldn’t have shown us all those things, and he wouldn’t have given us those instructions.”

24 In due course, the woman gave birth to a son and she named him Shimshon (commonly misnamed as ‘Samson’ in English). The boy grew up and Yahweh blessed him, 25 and then Yahweh’s spirit began to stir him when he was in Mahaneh Dan—between Zorah and between Eshtaol.