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1 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 2 And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: 7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 8 Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. 11 And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. 12 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? 13 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. 14 She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe. 15 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. 16 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD. 17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? 18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? 19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these. 24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
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[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 13:1
For many years the Philistines held the Hebrews in subjection after their surrender, for they had lost the prestige of faith by which their fathers had gained victory. Yet the mark of their election and the ties of their heritage had not been entirely obliterated by their Creator. But, because they were often puffed up by success, he delivered them for the most part into the power of the enemy, so that with manly dignity they would seek from heaven the remedy of their ills. We submit to God at a time when we are overwhelmed by other reverses; success puffs up the mind. This is proved not only in other matters but especially in that change of fortune by which success returned again from the Philistines to the Hebrews.

Source: LETTER 35
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 13:2-7
When the spirit of the Hebrews had been so crushed by long and injurious subjection that no one with manly vigor dared to encourage them to freedom, there arose in their behalf a great hero, Samson, whose destiny was ordained by God’s words. He was not numbered with the many, but outstanding among the few; he was without question easily reckoned as surpassing all in bodily strength. We must regard him with great admiration from the very beginning, not because he gave great evidence of temperance and sobriety from boyhood by abstaining from wine, nor because as a Nazarite he was ever faithful to guard his sacred trust, with locks unshorn, but because from his youth—a period of softness in others, but truly remarkable in him—he worked amazing deeds of strength, perfect beyond the measure of human nature. By his deeds he soon gained credence for that divine prophecy. For no slight cause had such great graces preceded him that an angel came down to foretell to his parents his unexpected birth, the leadership he would hold and the protection he would give his people who had been tormented so long by the oppressive rule of the Philistines.His godfearing father was of the tribe of Dan, of no low station in life, preeminent among others. His mother, a barren woman, was not unfruitful in the virtues of the soul. She was worthy to receive into the dwelling of her soul the vision of an angel, whose command she obeyed and whose words she fulfilled. She did not permit herself to know even the secrets of God without her husband’s sharing of them; she told him that a man of God had appeared to her, of wondrous beauty, bringing her a prophecy that a child would be born. Because she trusted his promises she shared with her husband her trust in these heavenly pledges.

Source: LETTER 35
[AD 735] Bede on Judges 13:2-7
Thus Jacob, the patriarch Joseph, Samson, [who was] the bravest of the chieftains, and Samuel, [who was] the most distinguished of the prophets, [all] had as their progenitors [mothers who were] for a long time barren in body but always fruitful in virtues. In this way their dignity would be known from the miraculous nativity of those who were born, and it might be proven that they would be famous in their lives, since at the very outset of their lives they transcended the norms of the human condition.

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 2.19
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 13:8
When he learned them [the promises spoken by the angel], he devoutly begged God in prayer that he might also be granted the favor of a vision, saying, “O Lord, let your angel come to me.”I do not think, as a certain author has supposed, that he did this out of jealousy for his wife, who was remarkable for her beauty, but rather because he was moved by a desire for a favor from heaven and wished to share the benefit of the heavenly vision. One depraved by vices of the soul would not have found such favor with the Lord that an angel would return to his house, give the admonition which the fulfilling of the prophecy entailed, be suddenly raised in the form of a glowing flame, and depart. This vision, which so frightened the husband, the wife interpreted more auspiciously, turning it to joy and removing his anxiety. She said that to see God was a proof of favor, not of ill will.

Source: LETTER 35
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Judges 13:13
Let her refrain: By the Latin text it is not clear whether this abstinence was prescribed to the mother, or to the child; but the Hebrew (in which the verbs relating thereto are of the feminine gender) determineth it to the mother. But then the child also was to refrain from the like things, because he was to be from his infancy a Nazarite of God, ver. 5, that is, one set aside, in a particular manner, and consecrated to God: now the Nazarites by the law were to abstain from all these things.
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Judges 13:16
Therefore to God alone appertains worship, and this the very angels know, that though they excel other beings in glory, yet they are all creatures and not to be worshiped, but worship the Lord. Thus Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the angel, was thereupon hindered by him, saying, “Offer not to me, but to God.” On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the angels; for it is written: “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

Source: Discourses Against the Arians 2.16.23
[AD 391] Pacian of Barcelona on Judges 13:18
Concerning the name Catholic I answered fully and in a conciliatory manner. For I said that it mattered to neither one of us what the other was called. But if you demanded to know the meaning of the name, whatever it might be, it is “wonderful”—whether it means “one in all” or “one above all” or, an interpretation I have not mentioned previously, “the king’s child”—that is, the Christian people. Certainly this name, which has endured for so many centuries, was not bestowed upon us by ourselves but by God. And truly I rejoice that, although you may have preferred other names, you agree that the name belongs to us. And what if you were to deny this? Then nature would cry out. Or if you still have doubts, let us say nothing about it. We will both be that which we are called, under the witness of the antiquity of the name. If, however, quite stubbornly you continue to ask, take care lest that “man of might” may exclaim to you, “Why do you ask my name? The name itself is wonderful.” I then sensibly added that we ought not to consider whence Catholics acquired this name, because neither was it traditionally considered to represent a charge against the Valentinians if they were named after Valentinus, nor against the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor against the Novatians, if after Novatian.

Source: LETTER 2.2
[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on Judges 13:18
And so, too, the word that was spoken to Manoah shows the fact that the Divinity is not comprehensible by the significance of his name, because, when Manoah asks to know his name, that when the promise has come actually to pass, he may by name glorify his benefactor, he says to him, “Why do you ask this? It also is wonderful”; so that by this we learn that there is one name significant of the divine nature—the wonder, namely, that arises unspeakably in our hearts concerning it.

Source: AGAINST EUNOMIUS 8.1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Judges 13:20
For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or physical species; and a person [is able] to use, face, tongue, hand, pen, letters, or any other means for the purpose of communicating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if, though he is human, he sends human messengers, and he says to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to his servant, “Do this,” and he does it”; with how much greater and more effectual power does God—to whom, as Lord, all things are subject—use both angel and man in order to declare whatever pleases him?

Source: EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 78.5
[AD 390] Gregory of Nazianzus on Judges 13:22
Must you not show respect for Manoah, the Old Testament judge.… Manoah was overwhelmed by the sight of God in a vision. “Wife,” he said, “we are lost, we have seen God”—meaning by this that even a vision of God is too much for human beings, let alone God’s nature.

Source: THEOLOGICAL ORATIONS 2 (28).19
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Judges 13:22
Seen God: Not in his own person, but in the person of his messenger. The Israelites, in those days, imagined they should die if they saw an angel, taking occasion perhaps from those words spoken by the Lord to Moses, Ex. 33. 20, No man shall see me and live. But the event demonstrated that it was but a groundless imagination.
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 13:25
And why should I speak of all one by one? Samson, born by the divine promise, had the Spirit accompanying him, for we read, “The Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp.” And so foreshadowing the future mystery, he demanded a wife of the aliens, which, as it is written, his father and mother did not know about, because it was from the Lord. And rightly was he esteemed stronger than others, because the Spirit of the Lord guided him, under whose guidance he alone put to flight the foreign peoples, and at another time inaccessible to the bite of the lion, he, unconquerable in his strength, tore the lion apart with his hands. Would that Samson had been as careful to preserve grace, as he was strong to overcome the beast!

Source: ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 2, PROLOGUE 5
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 13:25
Above, you read that “the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to go with him.” Farther on it is said, “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” Again he says, “If I be shaven, my strength will depart from me.” After he was shaven, see what the Scripture says: “The Lord,” it says, “departed from him.”4You see, then, that he who went with him, himself departed from him. The same is, then, the Lord, who is the Spirit of the Lord, as also the apostle says: “The Lord is the Spirit, now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Source: On the Holy Spirit 2.1.17-18
[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Judges 13:25
The strength which Samson possessed, dearly beloved, came from the grace of God rather than by nature, for if he had been naturally strong his power would not have been taken away when his hair was cut. Where, then, was that most powerful strength, except in what the Scripture says: “The Spirit of the Lord walked with him”? Therefore, his strength belonged to the Spirit of the Lord. In Samson was the vessel, but the fullness was in the Spirit. A vessel can be filled and emptied. Moreover, every vessel has its perfection from something else, and so in Paul grace was commended when he was called a vessel of election.

Source: SERMON 118.2