Overview
An angel appears twice to the barren wife of Manoah — and once to both parents together — announcing the conception of a Nazirite son chosen to begin Israel's deliverance from the Philistines, while Manoah's unnamed wife interprets the accompanying theophany with a calm theological confidence that outlasts her husband's fear, and the chapter closes with Samson's birth and the first stirring of the Spirit upon him.
Passages
Study Resources
Judges 13
1The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless. 3Yahweh’s angel appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing; 5for, behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. 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 face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name; 7but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Don’t 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 Yahweh, and said, “Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us, and teach us what we should do to the child who shall be born.”
9God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah, her husband, wasn’t with her. 10The woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, saying to him, “Behold, the man who came to me that day has appeared to me.”
11Manoah arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He said, “I am.”
12Manoah said, “Now let your words happen. What shall the child’s way of life and mission be?”
13Yahweh’s angel 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. Let her observe all that I commanded her.”
15Manoah said to Yahweh’s angel, “Please stay with us, that we may make a young goat ready for you.”
16Yahweh’s angel said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I won’t eat your bread. If you will prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh.” For Manoah didn’t know that he was Yahweh’s angel.
17Manoah said to Yahweh’s angel, “What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you?”
18Yahweh’s angel said to him, “Why do you ask about my name, since it is incomprehensible?”
19So Manoah took the young goat with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh. Then the angel did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. 20For when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, Yahweh’s angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife watched; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21But Yahweh’s angel didn’t appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then Manoah knew that he was Yahweh’s angel. 22Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”
23But his wife said to him, “If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, and he wouldn’t have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time.” 24The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him. 25Yahweh’s Spirit began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.