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The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and childless, but you will conceive and have a son. Make sure you do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat any unclean thing, for you will conceive and have a son. No razor is ever to touch his head, for he will be a Nazirite,[a] one dedicated to God from the womb. He will begin the deliverance of Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.”

The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has visited me. He looked like an angel of God, truly wondrous. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. He said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and have a son. Do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat anything unclean, for from the womb until the day he dies he will be a Nazirite of God.’ ”

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Footnotes

  1. Judges 13:5 Nazirite: one who was consecrated to God by a vow. Sometimes, like Samson and John the Baptist, the consecration pre-dated their birth. Prohibitions against wine and other vine products (Num 6:3), and against a shaved head (Num 6:5), had serious consequences for Samson later in his life.