Father of the judge Samson.
About Manoah
Danite from Zorah whose wife was barren. Through encounters with the Angel of the Lord, the couple learned that God was about to give them a son who would judge the Philistines and deliver Israel from its oppression. Manoah later fathered Samson, who fulfilled these promises (Jgs 13; 16:31).
Family Relationships
- Child
- Samson
Key References
Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.
All Scripture References (14)
Judges (14)
Now there was a man from Zorah named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, whose wife was barren and had no children.
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born.”
And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.
So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” “I am,” he said.
Then Manoah asked, “When your words come to pass, what will be the boy’s rule of life and mission?”
So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife is to do everything I told her.
“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”
And the angel of the LORD replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the LORD.
Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes to pass?”
Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the LORD did a marvelous thing.
When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.
And when the angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been the angel of the LORD.
“We are going to die,” he said to his wife, “for we have seen God!”
Then Samson’s brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. And he had judged Israel twenty years.