The Birth of Samuel

1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim,^(A) a Zuphite^[a](B) from the hill country^(C) of Ephraim,^(D) whose name was Elkanah^(E) son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives;^(F) one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

³ Year after year^(G) this man went up from his town to worship^(H) and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh,^(I) where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli,^(J) were priests of the Lord. ⁴ Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice,^(K) he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.^{(L) 5} But to Hannah he gave a double portion^(M) because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.^{(N) 6} Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.^(O)

²⁴ After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,^[a](A) an ephah^[b] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. ²⁵ When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, ²⁶ and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed^(B) for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life^(C) he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.