1And the sons of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of LORD, and LORD 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 did not bear. 3And the agent of LORD appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold now, thou are barren, and do not bear, but thou shall conceive, and bear a son. 4Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing, 5for, lo, thou shall conceive, and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to 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 to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the agent of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him from where he was, neither did he tell me his name, 7but he said to me, Behold, thou shall conceive, and bear a son. And now drink no wine nor strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 8Then Manoah entreated LORD, and said, Oh, LORD, I pray thee, let the man of God whom thou sent come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child that shall be born. 9And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the agent of God came again to 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 to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the [other] day. 11And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Are thou the man who spoke to 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 [what] shall we do to him? 13And the agent of LORD said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 14She may not eat of anything that comes 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 to the agent of LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, that we may make ready a kid for thee. 16And the agent of LORD said to Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread, and if thou will make ready a burnt-offering, thou must offer it to LORD. For Manoah did not know that he was the agent of LORD. 17And Manoah said to the agent of LORD, What is thy name, that, when thy words come to pass, we may do thee honor? 18And the agent of LORD said to him, Why do thou ask after my name, seeing it is wonderful? 19So Manoah took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it upon the rock to LORD. And [the heavenly agent] 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 agent of LORD 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 agent of LORD appeared no more to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the agent of LORD. 22And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23But his wife said to him, If LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things a 24And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and LORD blessed him. 25And the Spirit of LORD began to move him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.