Israel oppressed by the Philistines
13
📚And once more 📖 the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines 📖 for forty years.Samson
2 📚And there was a certain man of Zorah 📖, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren 📖 and had not borne children. 3 📚And the angel of the LORD 📖 appeared to the woman and said to her, “Look now, you are barren and have not borne children; but you will conceive and bear a son. 4 📚Now therefore you must be careful and not drink wine or strong drink. And do not eat any unclean thing. 5 📚For, look, you will conceive and bear a son. And no razor is to come on his head; for the child is to be a Nazirite 📖 to God from birth. And he will begin 📖 to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines”.
6 📚Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. But I did not ask him from where he was, and he did not tell me his name.
13:6 The angel appeared to her in the form of a man.⚜
7 📚But he said to me, ‘Look, you will conceive and bear a son. And now drink no wine or strong drink and do not eat any unclean thing; for the child is to be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’ ”
8 📚Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O my Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come back to us and teach us 📖 what we should do for the child that will be born”.
9 📚And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came back to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 📚And the woman ran quickly and told her husband and said to him, “Look, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me”.
11 And Manoah arose and followed his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am”.
12 📚And Manoah said, “Now let your words be fulfilled. What should the boy’s rule of life be and what should his work be?”
13 And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Let the woman be careful about all that I said to her. 14 📚She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, and she must not drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. She must observe all that I commanded her”.
13:13-14 It is interesting that the instruction the angel gave was not for the son but for the mother. In other words, the most important thing in bringing up children is for parents first to obey God and be what He wants them to be.⚜
15 📚And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “I pray you, let us detain you until we prepare a young goat for you”.
16 📚And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Though you may detain me, I will not eat your bread. But if you offer a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD”. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.
17 And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name 📖? Tell us, so that when your words come true 📖 we can honour you”.
18 📚And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, since it is a wonder 📖?” 19 📚So Manoah took a young goat, with a grain offering, and offered it on a rock to the LORD. And the angel did a wonderful thing as Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 📚For it happened that when the flame rose up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife saw it and fell on their faces to the ground. 21 📚But the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.
22 📚And Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen God 📖”.
23 📚But his wife said to him, “If the LORD wanted to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, and he would not have shown us all these things or told us such things as these at this time”.
13:23 Sometimes wives have more common sense than their husbands.⚜
24 📚And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson 📖. And the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 📚And the Spirit of the LORD 📖 began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.