Samuel’s Birth

1 Now there was a certain man of Ramah, a Zuphite of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives: the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 This man used to go up from his city year by year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of armies in Shiloh. Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there. 4 It came to pass on one occasion that Elkanah sacrificed. Now he used to give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters, 5 but to Hannah he used to give a double portion because he loved her. But the Lord had shut up her womb. 6 Her rival used to vex her bitterly in order to make her angry, because the Lord had shut up her womb. 7 This happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to vex her; therefore she wept and would not eat. 8 But Elkanah her husband said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep and not eat, and why is your heart sad? Am not I better to you than ten sons?’

9 So Hannah rose up, after they had eaten in Shiloh, and stood before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting at his seat at the door-posts of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was greatly distressed and prayed fervently to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 She vowed a vow, saying,

‘O Lord of armies!

If you will indeed look on the affliction of your maid-servant,

remember me and not forget your maid-servant,

but will give to your maid-servant a boy

then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.

A razor will not come upon his head.’

12 While she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Now Hannah was speaking to herself. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli took her for a drunken woman. 14 So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you act like a drunken woman? Put away the effects of your wine and go from the presence of the Lord.’

15 ‘No, my lord,’ Hannah answered, ‘I am an unfortunate woman! I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but I have been pouring out my heart before the Lord. 16 Do not take your maid-servant to be a vile woman, for because of the greatness of my grief and vexation have I continued speaking until now.’

17 Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him.’

18 She said, ‘Let your maid-servant find favour in your sight.’ So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

19 They rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

20 And Hannah conceived, and it came to pass at the coming around of the new year that she bore a son, and named him Samuel[fn], saying, ‘For I have asked him of the Lord.’

21 The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up; for she said to her husband, ‘When the child is weaned then I will bring him and he will appear in the presence of the Lord and will live there forever.’

23 Elkanah her husband said to her, ‘Do what seems good to you: wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish your word.’

So the woman waited and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, together with a three-year-old bullock and a bushel of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. 25 They slew the bullock and Hannah brought the lad to Eli. 26 She said, ‘Oh, sir, by your life, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying fervently to the Lord. 27 This is the lad regarding whom I was fervently praying, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of him. 28 Now, I on my part have given him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is given to the Lord.’ So she left him there before the Lord.

2 And Hannah prayed:

My heart exults in the Lord,

my strength is exalted in the Lord;

my mouth laughs at my enemies;

because I rejoice in your salvation.

2 There is none holy as the Lord,

there is none like you;

there is no rock like our God.

3 Do not talk so proudly,

let not arrogance come out of your mouth,

for the Lord is a God of knowledge,

and by him actions are weighed.

4 The bows of the mighty men are broken,

and they that stumbled are girded with strength.

5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread,

and they that were hungry have ceased;

while the barren has borne seven,

she who had many children has languished.

6 The Lord kills, and makes alive;

he brings down to the grave, and brings up.

7 The Lord makes poor, and makes rich;

he brings low, he also lifts up.

8 He raises up the poor out of the dust,

he lifts up the needy from the garbage heap

to make them sit with princes,

and inherit the throne of glory.

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,

and he has set the world upon them.

9 He will guard the feet of his holy ones,

but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness;

for not by strength will humans prevail.

10 They who strive with the Lord will be broken to pieces;

against them will he thunder in heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth,

he will give strength to his king

and exalt the power of his anointed.

11 So Elkanah went to Ramah. But the lad was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. 12 Now the sons of Eli were base scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord, 13 nor for what was justly due to the priest from the people. Whenever a man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14 and would strike into the pot or the kettle or the basin or the dish. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. So they did to all the Israelites who came to sacrifice to the Lord in Shiloh. 15 Moreover before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant used to come and say to the man who was making the offering, ‘Give me meat to roast for the priest; for he will not take from you boiled flesh, but raw.’ 16 Should the man, however, say to him, ‘First you should burn the fat, then take as much as you desire,’ he would reply, ‘No, you must give it at once or else I will take it by force.’ 17 The sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men had contempt for the offering of the Lord. 18 And Samuel continued ministering before the Lord – a lad girded with a linen ephod. 19 His mother used to make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, ‘The Lord repay you with offspring from this woman for the gift which she gave to the Lord.’ Then they would return to their own home. 21 And the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew up before the Lord.

22 Now Eli was very old; and whenver he heard what his sons were doing to all Israel, how they lay with the women who did service at the door of the tent of meeting, 23 he said to them, ‘Why do you do such things as these, which I hear from the mouth of all the people. 24 No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25 If one man sin against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who could act as mediator for him?’ Notwithstanding they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to slay them. 26 But the lad Samuel kept on growing larger and better in the estimation both of the Lord and of men.

27 There came a man of God to Eli and said to him, ‘This is the Lord’s message: I revealed myself to your father’s house, when they were in Egypt servants to Pharaoh’s house, 28 and I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to go up to my altar to burn sacrifices, to bear an ephod before me, and I gave to your father’s house for food all the offerings of the Israelites made by fire. 29 Why do you look with envious eyes on my sacrifices and offerings, and honour your sons above me in fattening yourselves with the first-fruits of all the offerings which the Israelites bring me?” 30 Therefore the Lord the God of Israel says, “I had indeed thought that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever,” but now the Lord says, “Far be it from me, for them who honour me I will honour, and they who despise me will be lightly esteemed. 31 The days are quickly coming when I Will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house. 32 You will look in affliction and enviously on all the prosperity which I will give Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house forever. 33 The only one of you whom I do not cut off from my altar will be spared to weep out his eyes and to wear out his body, and all of your household will die by the sword of men. 34 This will be the sign to you that will come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both will die. 35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to that which is in my heart and in my desire, and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before my anointed forever. 36 Anyone who is left in your house will come to do him obeisance for a piece of money or a loaf of bread, and will beg to be given in one of the priests’ offices so that they may eat a morsel of bread.”’

3 The child Samuel continued ministering before the Lord in the presence of Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; there were no frequent visions. 2 Once at that time, when Eli was lying in his Samuel place – his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see – 3 and while the lamp of God was still burning, and Samuel was lying in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was, 4 the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ He said, ‘Here I am.’ 5 He ran to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’ But he said, ‘I didn’t call, lie down again.’ So he went and lay down. 6 Then the Lord called yet again, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’ But he answered, ‘I didn’t call, my son. Lie down again.’ 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. 8 So when the Lord called Samuel again the third time, he arose and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am; for you called me.’ Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the child. 9 So Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if you are called, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Then the Lord came, and stood there, and called as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak; for your servant is listening.’ 11 And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘See, I am about to do such a thing in Israel, that the ears of everyone who hears it will ring. 12 In that day I will perform toward Eli all that I have spoken against his house from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the guilt which he knew, in that his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the guilt of Eli’s house will not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering forever.’

15 And Samuel lay there until the morning. Then he rose early in the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to make the known the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, ‘Samuel, my son.’ He said, ‘I am here.’ 17 He said, ‘What is the thing that the Lord has spoken to you? Hide nothing from me. May God do to you whatever he will, if you conceal from me a word of all that he spoke to you.’ 18 So Samuel told him everything; and hid nothing from him. And Eli said, ‘It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.’

19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. 21 And the Lord again appeared in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel, 4 and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.