17. Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you when your announcement comes true.”
18. The Lord’s messenger said to him, “You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it.”
19. Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched.
20. As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown to the ground.
21. The Lord’s messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord’s messenger.
22. Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen a supernatural being!”
23. But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”
24. Manoah’s wife gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the Lord empowered him.
25. The Lord’s spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.