Manoah

Manoah (meaning rest or a present) was a Danite from Zorah, the father of Samson (Judges 13:1–22). He and his unnamed wife were childless when the angel of the LORD appeared to her and announced she would conceive and bear a son who was to be a Nazirite from birth, set apart to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines. Manoah prayed for the messenger to return and give further instruction about raising the child, and the angel appeared again. Manoah prepared a kid and grain offering, which the angel caused to ascend as fire from the rock — at which point Manoah realized they had seen the angel of the LORD and feared they would die.

His wife's reassurance — "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these" (Judges 13:23) — displays a theological clarity that often exceeds her husband's in the narrative. The theophany to Manoah and his wife parallels other birth announcements of judges and kings in the Bible, establishing Samson's extraordinary origin and divine mission before his complicated ministry begins.