In the present work Hondius has depicted a scene from the story of Samson, the Hebrew battle champion and ruler, recounted in the Book of Judges (13:1-20). Samson’s birth is originally announced to his mother by an angel disguised as a young man, who also dictates the rules for the child’s lifestyle as member of the order of the Nazirites. The woman’s husband, Manoah, somewhat skeptical, demands to hear the revelation as well and to meet the visitor. After the convinced couple sacrifices a kid, the man reveals himself as an angel, rising up in the flames from the altar. Although nominally a neutral scene, acceptable to various religious denominations, Manoah’s Sacrifice bore some connection to traditional altarpiece subject matter, especially in its inclusion of an altar bearing a sacrifice. Samson traditionally belonged to the typology of Jesus, but the present scene combines allusions to the Ascension of Christ and the Annunciation to the Virgin. Hondius may well have produced such a work for members of his own Roman Catholic community in Rotterdam.