Танах к Берешит 49:16

The Bnei Yisroel resumed acting wickedly in Adonoy's eyes. Adonoy delivered them into the hand of the Pelishtim for forty years. There was a man from Tzor'oh, of the Danite family, named Manoach. His wife was barren, never having borne a child. An angel of God appeared to the woman, and told her, "Look, you are presently barren, and have never borne a child. But you shall conceive, and bear a son. Now please be careful; do not drink freshly pressed or intoxicating wine, and do not consume anything ritually defiled. For you will conceive and bear a son. The razor must not be wielded on his head, for the boy shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb. He shall initiate the salvation of Yisroel from the hand of the Pelishtim." The woman came and told her husband, saying "A man of God has visited me, whose appearance resembled the appearance of an angel of God—extremely awesome! I did not ask him where he was from, nor did he tell me his name. He said to me, 'You will conceive and bear a son. Do not drink freshly pressed or intoxicating wine, and do not consume anything ritually defiled, for the boy shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb until the day of his death.'" Manoach beseeched Adonoy, saying: "Please, my Master, the man of God whom you sent—please, may he visit us again to instruct us concerning what must be done with the boy who will be born." God accepted Manoach's prayer. The angel of God visited the woman again, as she sat in the field, but her husband Manoach, was not with her. The woman hastened, and ran to inform her husband. She told him, "Look, the man has appeared to me—the one who visited me that day." Manoach rose, and walked behind his wife. He came to the man, and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" He said, "I am." Manoach said, "Now your word shall be fulfilled. What regulations must we follow with the boy, how shall we treat him?" The angel of Adonoy replied to Manoach, "of everything I mentioned to the woman, she must be aware. Anything manufactured from the wine producing grape she must not consume. and freshly pressed or intoxicating wine She must not drink. She must not consume anything ritually defiled. Everything I commanded her she must carefully keep. Manoach said to the angel of Adonoy, "Please, allow us to detain you, and prepare, for you, a young goat." The angel of Adonoy replied to Manoach, "Even if you should detain me, I cannot eat your bread. And if you wish to prepare an Olah offering, offer it to Adonoy." For Manoach was unaware that this was an angel of Adonoy. Manoach said to the angel of Adonoy, "What is your name? When your instructions reach us, we want to honor you." The angel of Adonoy replied to him, "Why ask my name, when it is mystical?" Manoach took the young goat and the offering, and brought them up on the rock to Adonoy. Then a miracle was worked, while Manoach and his wife watched. It happened, that, when the flame leapt from the altar heavenward, the angel of Adonoy ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoach and his wife saw this, they prostrated themselves, their faces to the ground. The angel of Adonoy no longer revealed himself to Manoach and his wife. Manoach then realized that this was an angel of Adonoy. Manoach exclaimed to his wife, "We shall surely die, for we have had a vision of God!" His wife replied to him, "If Adonoy had wanted to kill us, He would not have accepted from our hands the Olah and meal offerings. He would not have revealed all this to us, and, at this time, He would not have apprised us in this way." The woman gave birth to a son, and named him Shimshon. The boy matured, and Adonoy blessed him. The spirit of Adonoy began pulsating within him in the camp of Dan, which was between Tzoroh and Eshtaol.

Shimshon descended to Timnas. He saw a woman in Timnas of the Pelishtite daughters. He went up, and informed his father and mother. He said, "I saw a woman in Timnas of the Pelishtite daughters. Take her, now, for me as a wife." His mother and father said to him, "Is there no one among the daughters of your kinsmen, or any of my people, suitable as a wife, that you must go out to take a wife from the uncircumcised Pelishtim?" But Shimshon responded to his father, "Take her for me, for she appears appropriate in my eyes." His father and mother did not know that this was decreed by Adonoy, as He sought a pretext against the Pelishtim. At that time the Pelishtim ruled over Yisroel. Shimshon descended, with his father and mother, to Timnas, and arrived at the vineyards of Timnas. A young lion roared towards him. The spirit of Adonoy visited him, and he tore it asunder as one would tear asunder a young kid, although he was empty handed. He did not tell his father and mother, what he had done. He descended, and discussed the woman. She appeared appropriate in his eyes. He returned several days later to claim her, and turned to observe the remains of the lion. There was a colony of bees in the carcass, and honey as well. He scraped it into his palms, and proceeded, eating as he walked. He went to his father and mother, and gave them [of it] and they ate. He did not inform them that it was from the lion's carcass that he had scraped the honey. His father descended to discuss the woman, and Shimshon tendered a feast there, as was customary for the young men. It happened that, when they saw him, they assembled thirty friends, who joined him. Shimshon said to them, "Let me pose a riddle to you. If you solve it for me during the seven feast days accurately, then I shall award you with thirty linen cloths and thirty suits of clothing. But if you cannot solve it for me, then you must give me thirty linen cloths and thirty suits of clothing. They replied, "Pose your riddle, and let us hear it!." He said to them, "From that which eats came forth that which is eaten; from power came sweetness." They were unable to solve the riddle for three days. It was on the seventh day, that they told Shimshon's wife, "Cajole your husband into solving the riddle for us, lest we burn you and your father's house in flames. Was it to impoverish us that you invited us here?" Shimshon's wife wept over him, and she said, "You just hate me. You do not love me; you have posed the riddle to my people, but have told me nothing." He said to her, "I have told nothing to my father and my mother; Shall I then tell you?" She wept over him for the seven days of their feasting. It happened on the seventh day, that he revealed the solution to her, for she had tormented him. She disclosed the riddle to her compatriots. The townspeople said to him on the seventh day, before sunset, "What can be sweeter than honey, and what is more powerful than the lion?" He told them, "If you had not plowed with my calf, you would not have solved my riddle!" The spirit of Adonoy visited him, and he descended to Ashkelon. He struck down thirty men among them, took their garments, and gave the suits of clothing to those who had solved the riddle. He was enraged [with his wife], and ascended to his father's house. Shimshon's wife became attached to a friend who had attended him.

It happened that, after several days, during the wheat harvesting season, Shimshon visited his wife with a young kid, and said, "Let me approach my wife in the chamber." But her father would not permit him to enter. Her father said, "I averred that you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. Is not her younger sister superior to her? Please, let her be yours in place of her." Shimshon told them, "At this time I am innocent with regard to the Pelishtim, as I inflict injury upon them." Shimshon proceeded to capture three hundred foxes. He took torches, twisted each tail into the next, and placed a torch in the center, between the two tails. He set fire to the torches, and dispatched them into the Pelishtite grainfields, where they consumed haystack to standing grain to olive orchard. The Pelishtim exclaimed, "Who did this?" They replied, "Shimshon, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to a friend." The Pelishtim went up and burned her and her father. Shimshon said to them, "Is this the way you behave? Nothing but vengeance against you, and only afterward will I stop!" He struck them down, cavalry and infantry, with a tremendous blow; then he descended and settled on the promontory of the Eitam cliff. The Pelishtim ascended, and encamped in Yehudah. They fanned out across Lechi. The men of Yehudah asked, "Why have you ascended against us?" They replied, "We have ascended to tie down Shimshon, so that we may treat him as he has treated us." Three thousand men descended from Yehudah to the promontory of the Eitam cliff. They said to Shimshon, "Were you not aware that the Pelishtim rule over us? What have you done to us?" He replied to them, "Just as they treated me, I treated them." They said to him, "We have descended to tie you down, and deliver you into the hands of the Pelishtim." Shimshon said to them, "Swear to me, that you will not execute me yourselves." They replied to him, saying, "No! We shall merely tie you down and deliver you into their hands, but we shall surely not execute you. They tied him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the cliff. He arrived at Lechi, and the Pelishtim hooted at him. The spirit of Adonoy visited him, and the ropes on his arms became like flax charred by flame, so that his bonds dissolved from his hands. He found a moist cheekbone of a donkey, extended his hand, grasped it, and struck down, with it, a thousand men. Shimshon exclaimed, "With the jawbone of a donkey I amassed mounds; with the jawbone of a donkey I struck down a thousand men." And when he finished speaking, he flung the jawbone from his hand. He entitled that place Romas Lechi. He was exceedingly thirsty, and called out to Adonoy, saying, "You have delivered, into your servant's hand, this great salvation. Am I now to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" God broke open the jawbone socket, and water flowed from it. He drank, and his spirits were restored; he was revitalized. For this reason he entitled it 'Ein Hokorei Asher Balechi,' until this day. He judged Yisroel during the days of the Pelishtim for twenty years.