1 Samuel (1 Kings)
Chapter 1 of 31
1There was a man from Armathem Sipha, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeremiel, the son of Eli, the son of Toqe, the son of Naseb, an Ephrathite. 2He had two wives. One was named Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3Year after year this man went up from his town of Armathem to worship and to offer sacrifice to the LORD at Shiloh. Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there. 4One day Elkanah offered sacrifice, and he gave portions to his wife Peninnah and to her children. 5To Hannah he gave a single portion, because she had no children. Yet Elkanah loved Hannah more than the other, but the LORD had closed her womb. 6The LORD did not give her children in keeping with her anguish and the grief of her sorrow, and she grieved over this, because the LORD had closed her womb and given her no child. 7He did this year after year when he went up to the house of the LORD, and she was sad, wept, and would not eat. 8Her husband Elkanah said to her, "Hannah." She said, "Here I am, my lord." He said to her, "What is wrong with you? Why are you crying? Why won't you eat? Why are you so heartbroken? Am I not better to you than ten sons?" 9After they had eaten at Shiloh, she got up and stood before the LORD. Eli the priest was sitting on a seat at the doorpost of the house of the LORD. 10She wept in the bitterness of her soul. 11She prayed to the LORD and said, "I make a vow to the LORD, Adonai, Lord, God of Hosts: if you will truly look on the suffering of your servant, remember me, and give your servant a son, I will give him to you as a gift until the day he dies. He will drink no wine or strong drink, and no razor will touch his head." 12As she kept praying before the LORD, Eli the priest was watching her mouth. 13She was speaking in her heart. Her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard, so Eli thought she was drunk. 14Eli's servant said to her, "How long will you stay drunk? Put away your wine and leave the presence of the LORD." 15Hannah answered him, "No, my lord. I am a woman whose days are hard. I have not drunk wine or strong drink. I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. 16Do not count your servant as one of the worthless women, for I have been speaking until now out of my great grief." 17Eli answered her, "Go in peace. May the God of Israel grant you your request, everything you have asked of him." 18Hannah said to him, "Your servant has found favor in your sight." Then the woman went her way, came to her lodging, ate and drank with her husband, and her face was no longer downcast. 19They got up early in the morning and worshiped the LORD and went on their way. Elkanah came home to Armathem and lay with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her, and she conceived. 20When the days of her pregnancy were complete, she gave birth to a son and named him Samuel, for she said, "He is from the LORD of Hosts, because I asked him for him." 21Elkanah went up with all 22his household to offer at Shiloh the yearly sacrifice, his vows, and all the tithes of the land. 23But Hannah did not go up with him, for she said to her husband, "Not until the child goes up with me, when I have weaned him. Then he will appear before the LORD and live there forever." 24Her husband said to her, "Do whatever seems best to you. Stay until you have weaned him. Only, keep for the LORD what has come out of your mouth." So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. 25Then she went up with him to Shiloh. She took a three-year-old bull, bread, an ephah of fine flour, and a skin of wine, and she came to the house of the LORD at Shiloh, and their child was with them. 26They brought him before the LORD. His father slaughtered the sacrifice he offered to the LORD every year, and he brought the child. He offered the bull, and Hannah the boy's mother brought her son to Eli. 27She said, "Hear me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood before you and made a vow to the LORD in your presence for this child. I prayed, and the LORD has given me the request I asked of him. 28Now I have given him to the LORD for all the days of his life, to serve the LORD." ‹
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1 Samuel (1 Kings) · Chapter 1 of 31