The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh.
"The Philistines were intensely religious. They celebrated their victories in the ’house of their idols’ (1 Samuel 31:9) [cf. Judges 16:23-27]. . . . Dagon . . . ’fish’ was represented with the hands and face of a man and the tail of a fish. . . . To . . . him they offered thanksgiving when they had taken Samson (Judges 16:23-24)." [Note: Unger’s Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Philistines," by Merrill F. Unger, pp. 859-61.] 