Judges 13-14

Jubilee Bible 2000

13 ¶ And the sons of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

² And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren, (she had never born children).

³ And the angel of the LORD appeared unto this woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren and hast had no children, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.

⁴ Now keep thyself and drink no wine nor strong drink and eat no unclean thing.

⁵ For thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible; but I did not ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name;

⁷ but he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

⁸ ¶ Then Manoah prayed unto the LORD and said, O my Lord, let the man of God whom thou didst send come again unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

⁹ And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰ And the woman made haste and ran and told her husband and said unto him, Behold, the man that came unto me has appeared unto me today.

¹¹ And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that spoke unto this woman? And he said, I am.

¹² Then Manoah said, Now let thy word come to pass. How shall we order the child, and what shall he do?

¹³ And the angel of the LORD replied unto Manoah, Let the woman keep herself from all that I said.

¹⁴ She may not eat of any thing 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 keep.

¹⁵ ¶ And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.

¹⁶ And the angel of the LORD replied unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread, but if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, sacrifice it unto the LORD. For Manoah did not know that this was the angel of the LORD.

¹⁷ And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name that when thy words come to pass we may honour thee?

¹⁸ And the angel of the LORD replied, Why dost thou ask for my name? It is wonderful.

¹⁹ So Manoah took a kid with a present and sacrificed it upon a rock unto the LORD, and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰ For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar as Manoah and his wife looked on, and they prostrated themselves on the ground on their faces.

²¹ But the angel of the LORD did not appear any more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.

²² And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God.

²³ But his wife said unto him, If the LORD had desired to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and the present from our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would he have announced this according to the time.

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 manifest himself at times in him in the camps of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

14 ¶ And as Samson went down to Timnath, he saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.

² And he came up and told his father and his mother, saying, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore get her for me to wife.

³ Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well.

⁴ But his father and his mother did not know that it was of the LORD that he sought an occasion against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson went down with his father and his mother to Timnath, and when they came to the vineyards of Timnath, behold, a young lion came roaring against him.

⁶ And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand, but he did not make known unto his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷ And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

⁸ And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside from the way to see the carcase of the lion; and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.

⁹ And he took of it in his hands and went along the way eating, and when he came to his father and mother, he also gave them some to eat, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

¹⁰ ¶ So his father went down unto the woman; and Samson made a banquet there, for the young men used to do so.

¹¹ And when they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him,

¹² unto whom Samson said, I will now put forth an enigma unto you, which if ye can declare it and discover it to me within the seven days of the banquet, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments.

¹³ But if ye cannot declare it to me, then ye shall give me thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy enigma that we may hear it.

¹⁴ And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not declare the enigma in three days.

¹⁵ And it came to pass on the seventh day that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice thy husband that he may declare unto us this enigma lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire. Have ye called us here to impoverish us?

¹⁶ And Samson’s wife wept before him and said, Thou dost only hate me and dost not love me, for thou hast not declared unto me the enigma that thou hast put forth unto the sons of my people. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it to my father nor my mother, and must I tell it to thee?

¹⁷ And she wept before him the seven days while their banquet lasted, but on the seventh day, he told her, because she lay sore upon him, and she declared the enigma to the sons of her people.

¹⁸ And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye would have never discovered my enigma.

¹⁹ And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men of them and taking their spoil, he gave the changes of garments to those who had explained the enigma. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.

²⁰ But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had fed him before.