Elkanah and His Wives

1 Now there was a certain man from ^(A)Ramathaim-zophim from the ^(B)hill country of Ephraim, and his name was ^(C)Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² Now he had ^(D)two wives: the name of one was ^(E)Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³ Now that man would go up from his city ^(F)yearly ^(G)to worship and to sacrifice to ^[a]Yahweh of hosts in ^(H)Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to Yahweh there. ⁴ And the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, and he ^(I)would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters; ⁵ but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, ^(J)but Yahweh had closed her womb. ⁶ Her rival, however, ^(K)would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because Yahweh had closed her womb. ⁷ And so it would happen year after year, as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her; so she wept and would not eat. ⁸ Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? ^(L)Am I not better to you than ten sons?”