Elkanah and His Wives

1 Now there was a 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 And he had ^(D)two wives: the name of one was ^(E)Hannah and the name of the ^[a]other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³ Now this man would go up from his city ^(F)yearly ^(G)to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of armies in ^(H)Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there. ⁴ When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he ^(I)would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; ⁵ but to Hannah he would give a double portion, because he loved Hannah, ^(J)but the Lord had closed her womb. ⁶ Her rival, moreover, ^(K)would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. ⁷ And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, that she would provoke her; so she wept and would not eat. ⁸ Then Elkanah her husband would say 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?”