‘Tell me, then, only thy name,’ said Manoah, ‘so that when what thou hast foretold to this woman come true, we may always keep thee in remembrance and do thee honour.’

‘Why inquirest thou of me my name,’ said the angel, ‘seeing that it is secret, and above man’s understanding?’

Then Manoah, marvelling in his mind what manner of man this was, chose out from his herd a kid for sacrifice. He took the kid to a great stone or rock that jutted up out of the green grass not far distant from the oak tree, and laid dry sticks on the stone, and placed the body of the kid upon the sticks, and he kindled them with fire, for a sacrifice and thanksgiving to the Lord.

And as Manoah and his wife, kneeling together a few paces from the rock, watched the flames ascending into the clear morning sunshine, the stranger himself drew near to the rock, and lo, the flames seemed to beat down upon him, and the radiance of his countenance was more intense than their eyes could bear. They bowed themselves to the ground, and the angel rose up and ascended from them in the flames of the sacrifice and vanished into the heavens.

Manoah sprang hastily to his feet, his mind filled with astonishment and dread, and he knew now that this stranger was no man but an angel. He turned trembling to his wife: ‘What shall we do?’ he said. ‘God’s judgment will fall upon us. We have seen his angel face to face and shall surely die.’

But his wife, whose heart and mind were so welling over with joy and thankfulness that there was no room for fear, eagerly reasoned with him. ‘It was in truth,’ she said, ‘an angel of the Lord, and now I see that deep within me I knew it from the moment I looked into his face and his eyes dwelt upon mine. But of a truth there is nothing to fear. If God had intended to destroy us, he would not have accepted this sacrifice; nor would he have let us remain here and witness all that we have seen; nor would the angel have foretold all that he did foretell.’

At this Manoah was comforted, and they rejoiced together and were at peace. The angel never afterwards appeared again to him or to the woman. And when, as he had foretold, her son was born, she named him Samson, which means, ‘Radiant as the Sun’.

In everything that the angel had bidden his mother so was Samson brought up. Neither as a child, nor when he had grown up into boyhood, was there any that could compare with him in beauty and grace and strength in the country round about Zorah, either among his own people or among the Philistines.

He was swifter of foot than a wild animal, impulsive and fearless, yet he seemed not to be aware of his strength, nor had he any vanity, for his face was lit up as a lantern is by the flame within it; and his hair which from his birth had never been clipped or shorn surrounded his face like dark strands of gold. When he was past his first childhood, his mother plaited it and bound it behind his head in seven braids, to keep it untangled and from falling into his eyes.

In all things he obeyed the vows that had been made on his behalf before he was born. He was the never-ending delight of his mother’s heart, and Manoah watched over him, and while he was still young restrained him and as far as possible kept him at home. But he was of a rash, wilful and tempestuous nature, as quick to take offence as to forgive, and bent on having his own way.

As he grew up towards manhood, he went in freedom everywhere, learning the ways and habits of the birds and beasts of the steeps and ravines among the mountains, and the craft of the hunter, fearing nought. And he chose companions not only from among his own kinsmen and the boys of the village whose white houses nestled on the mountain side, but ventured also down into the plain and into the company of the Philistines. He mastered their ways and minds, fickle and crafty; though in his heart he despised them.