Judges 13 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The Israelites again did what was wrong in Yahweh's eyes, so Yahweh handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

There was a man from Zorah, from the clan of Dan, whose name was Manoah. His wife had never been able to have children.

The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman and told her, "Look — you've never been able to have children and haven't given birth, but you're going to become pregnant and have a son."

"So be careful now — don't drink any wine or beer, and don't eat anything ritually unclean."

"Because you're going to become pregnant and have a son. No razor should ever touch his head, because the boy will be set apart for God from the moment he's in the womb. He will be the one who begins to rescue Israel from the Philistines."

The woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God — absolutely terrifying. I didn't ask him where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name."

"He told me, 'You're going to become pregnant and have a son. So don't drink any wine or beer, and don't eat anything ritually unclean, because the boy will be set apart for God from the womb until the day he dies.'"

Then Manoah pleaded with Yahweh, "Please, my Lord — let the man of God you sent come back to us again and teach us what we should do for the boy who's going to be born."

God listened to Manoah's plea, and the angel of God came back to the woman while she was sitting in the field. But her husband Manoah wasn't with her.

The woman quickly ran and told her husband, "Look! The man who came to me the other day just appeared to me again!"

Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, "Are you the one who spoke to my wife?" The man said, "I am."

Manoah said, "When your words come true, what should the boy's way of life and his mission be?"

The angel of Yahweh answered Manoah, "Your wife needs to be careful about everything I told her."

"She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, must not drink any wine or beer, and must not eat anything ritually unclean. She needs to follow everything I commanded her."

Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Please, let us get you to stay so we can prepare a young goat for you to eat."

The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Even if you get me to stay, I won't eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yahweh." (Manoah still didn't realize this was the angel of Yahweh.)

Then Manoah asked the angel of Yahweh, "What is your name? When your words come true, we want to honor you."

The angel of Yahweh said to him, "Why are you asking my name? It's beyond understanding."

So Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them on a rock to Yahweh. And then Yahweh did something extraordinary as Manoah and his wife watched:

As the flame rose from the altar toward the sky, the angel of Yahweh went up in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground.

The angel of Yahweh didn't appear again to Manoah or his wife. That's when Manoah finally realized this had been the angel of Yahweh.

Manoah said to his wife, "We're going to die! We've seen God!"

But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh wanted to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn't have shown us all these things or told us what he just told us."

The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up, and Yahweh's favor was on him.

And the Breath of Yahweh began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.