Judges 13:17-25

17 Then Manoah asked the Messenger of the LORD, "What is your name? When your words come true, we will honor you."

18 The Messenger of the LORD asked him, "Why do you ask for my name? It's a name that works miracles."

19 So Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and sacrificed them to the LORD on a rock he used as an altar. While Manoah and his wife watched, the LORD did something miraculous.

20 As the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Messenger of the LORD went up in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they immediately bowed down with their faces touching the ground.

21 The Messenger of the LORD didn't appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that this had been the Messenger of the LORD.

22 So Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die because we have seen God."

23 But Manoah's wife replied, "If the LORD wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He would not have let us see or hear all these things just now."

24 So the woman had a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up, and the LORD blessed him.

25 The LORD's Spirit began to stir in him while he was at Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 13:17-25 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 13

This chapter relates the birth of Samson, another of the judges of Israel, which was foretold by an angel to his mother, who told her husband of it, Jud 13:1-7 upon whose entreaty the angel appeared again, and related the same to them both, Jud 13:8-14 and who was very, respectfully treated by the man, and by the wonderful things he did was known by him to be an angel of the Lord, which greatly surprised him, Jud 13:15-23 and the chapter is closed with an account of the birth of Samson, and of his being early endowed with the Spirit of God, Jud 13:24,25.