So Manoah took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel] did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.
I have already referred to the antagonism of the Philistines on Israel’s southwestern flank (Judges 3:31; Judges 10:7). This nation continued to increase in power during the period of the judges and became Israel’s major enemy by the end of the amphictyony and the beginning of the monarchy.