1The sons of Israel again did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.2There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had not borne a child.3The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Behold, you are barren and have not borne a child, but you shall conceive and bear a son."4Now therefore be careful, please, and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.5For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.6Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome; I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name."7He said to me, "Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; therefore drink no wine or strong drink, and eat no unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death."8Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, "Please, Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and show us what we shall do for the child who will be born."9God heard the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was sitting in the field; Manoah her husband was not with her.10The woman hurried and ran and told her husband and said to him, "Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me."11Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" He said, "I am."12Manoah said, "Now let your words come true; what shall be the rule for the child and his work?"13The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful."14She shall not eat anything that comes from the vine of the wine; she shall not drink wine or strong drink, and she shall not eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her she shall keep.15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please, let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you."16The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat of your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.)17Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honor you?"18The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is incomprehensible?"19So Manoah took the kid of the goats and the offering and offered them up on the rock to the LORD, and he was doing a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on.20When the flame went up from the altar toward the heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar; Manoah and his wife were looking on, and they fell on their faces to the land.21The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.22Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."23But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and an offering from our hand, nor would he have shown us all these things, or let us hear such things at this time."24The woman bore a son and called his name Samson. The child grew, and the LORD blessed him.25The spirit of the LORD began to stir him in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.