Judges 13

1 And the sons of Israel add to do evil in the eyes of YHWH, and YHWH gives them into the hand of the Philistines [for] forty years.

And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

2 And there is a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danite, and his name [is] Manoah, his wife [is] barren, and has not borne;

Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child.

3 and the Messenger of YHWH appears to the woman and says to her, “Now behold, you [are] barren and have not borne; when you have conceived, then you have borne a son.

And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son.

4 And now, please take heed and do not drink wine and strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing,

Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food;

5 for behold, you are conceiving and bearing a son, and a razor does not go up on his head, for the youth is a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he begins to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

6 And the woman comes and speaks to her husband, saying, “A Man of God has come to me, and His appearance [is] as the appearance of the Messenger of God, very fearful, and I have not asked Him where He [is] from, and he has not declared His Name to me;

Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name;

7 and He says to me, Behold, you are pregnant, and bearing a son, and now do not drink wine and strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing, for the youth is a Nazarite to God from the womb until the day of his death.”

But he said to me, You are with child and will give birth to a son; and now do not take any wine or strong drink or let anything unclean be your food; for the child will be separate to God from his birth to the day of his death.

8 And Manoah makes plea to YHWH and says, “O my Lord, the Man of God whom You sent, please let Him come in again to us, and direct us what we do to the youth who is born.”

Then Manoah made prayer to the Lord, and said, O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and make clear to us what we are to do for the child who is to come.

9 And God listens to the voice of Manoah, and the Messenger of God comes again to the woman, and she [is] sitting in a field, and her husband Manoah is not with her,

And God gave ear to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came to the woman again when she was seated in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

10 and the woman hurries, and runs, and declares [it] to her husband, and says to him, “Behold, He has appeared to me—the Man who came on [that] day to me.”

So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day.

11 And Manoah rises, and goes after his wife, and comes to the Man, and says to Him, “Are you the Man who spoke to the woman?” And He says, “I [am].”

And Manoah got up and went after his wife, and came up to the man and said to him, Are you the man who was talking to this woman? And he said, I am.

12 And Manoah says, “Now let Your words come to pass; what is the custom of the youth—and his work?”

And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work?

13 And the Messenger of YHWH says to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her take heed;

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the woman take note of what I have said to her.

14 she does not eat of anything which comes out from the wine-vine, and she does not drink wine and strong drink, and she does not eat any unclean thing; she observes all that I have commanded her.”

She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her orders to do.

15 And Manoah says to the Messenger of YHWH, “Please let us detain You, and we prepare a kid of the goats before You.”

And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us keep you while we make ready a young goat for you.

16 And the Messenger of YHWH says to Manoah, “If you detain Me—I do not eat of your bread; and if you prepare a burnt-offering—offer it to YHWH”; for Manoah has not known that He [is] the Messenger of YHWH.

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord.

17 And Manoah says to the Messenger of YHWH, “What [is] Your Name? When Your words come to pass, then we have honored You.”

Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may give you honour?

18 And the Messenger of YHWH says to him, “Why do you ask this, My Name, since it [is] incomprehensible?”

But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder?

19 And Manoah takes the kid of the goats, and the present, and offers on the rock to YHWH, and He is doing wonderfully, and Manoah and his wife are looking on,

So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering, offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things.

20 and it comes to pass, in the going up of the flame from off the altar toward the heavens, that the Messenger of YHWH goes up in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife are looking on, and they fall on their faces to the earth,

And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down on their faces to the earth.

21 and the Messenger of YHWH has not added again to appear to Manoah, and to his wife, then Manoah has known that He [is] the Messenger of YHWH.

But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord.

22 And Manoah says to his wife, “We certainly die, for we have seen God.”

And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

23 And his wife says to him, “If YHWH were desirous to put us to death, He had not received burnt-offering and present from our hands, nor showed us all these things, nor caused us to hear [anything] like this as [at this] time.”

But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

24 And the woman bears a son, and calls his name Samson, and the youth grows, and YHWH blesses him,

So the woman gave birth to a son, and gave him the name Samson; and he became a man and the blessing of the Lord was on him.

25 and the Spirit of YHWH begins to move him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

And the spirit of the Lord first came on him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.