Catholic Public Domain Version

Judges 13:9-24 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

9. And the Lord heeded the prayer of Manoah, and the Angel of the Lord appeared again to his wife, sitting in a field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. And when she had seen the Angel,

10. she hurried and ran to her husband. And she reported to him, saying, "Behold, the man appeared to me, whom I had seen before."

11. And he rose up and followed his wife. And going to the man, he said to him, "Are you the one who spoke to my wife?" And he responded, "I am."

12. And Manoah said to him: "When will your word be fulfilled. What do you want the boy to do? Or from what should he keep himself?"

13. And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah: "Concerning all the things about which I have spoken to your wife, she herself should abstain.

14. And let her eat nothing from the vine. She may not drink wine or strong drink. She may consume nothing unclean. And let her observe and keep what I have instructed to her."

15. And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, "I beg you to agree to my petition, and to let us prepare a kid from the goats."

16. And the Angel answered him: "Even if you compel me, I will not eat from your bread. But if you are willing to offer a holocaust, offer it to the Lord." And Manoah did not know that he was an Angel of the Lord.

17. And he said to him, "What is your name, so that, if your word is fulfilled, we may honor you?"

18. And he answered him, "Why do you ask my name, which is a wonder?"

19. And so, Manoah took a kid from the goats, and libations, and he placed them upon a rock, as an offering to the Lord, who accomplishes wonders. Then he and his wife watched.

20. And when the flame of the altar ascended to heaven, the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. And when Manoah and his wife had seen this, they fell prone on the ground.

21. And the Angel of the Lord no longer appeared to them. And immediately, Manoah understood him to be an Angel of the Lord.

22. And he said to his wife, "We shall certainly die, since we have seen God."

23. And his wife answered him, "If the Lord wished to kill us, he would not have accepted the holocaust and the libations from our hands. He would not have revealed all these things to us, nor would he have told us the things that are in the future."

24. And so she bore a son, and she called his name Samson. And the boy grew up, and the Lord blessed him.