¹¹ God said to him, “I am God Almighty:^[a] be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you.^(A)

The Sign of the Covenant

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[a] walk before me, and be blameless.^(A)

³ I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty,^[a] but by my name ‘The Lord’^[b] I did not make myself known to them.^(A)

¹⁷ I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies,^(A)

⁵ No longer shall your name be Abram,^[a] but your name shall be Abraham,^[b] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.^{(A) 6} I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.^{(B) 7} I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.^(C)

¹⁶ I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”^(A)

Samuel’s Birth and Dedication

1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite^[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.^{(A) 2} He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.^(B)

³ Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.^{(C) 4} On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters,^{(D) 5} but to Hannah he gave a double portion^[b] because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.^{(E) 6} Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.^{(F) 7} So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”^(G)

⁹ After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.^[c] Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.^{(H) 10} She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. ¹¹ She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants,^[d] and no razor shall touch his head.”^(I)

¹² As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk.^{(J) 14} So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”^{(K) 15} But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.^{(L) 16} Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” ¹⁷ Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”^{(M) 18} And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went her way and ate and drank with her husband,^[e] and her countenance was sad no longer.^[f](N)

¹⁹ They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.^{(O) 20} In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”^(P)

²¹ The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.^{(Q) 22} But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.”^{[g](R) 23} Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish your^[h] word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.^{(S) 24} When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull,^[i] an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and the child was young.^{(T) 25} Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the child to Eli.^{(U) 26} And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the Lord.^{(V) 27} For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him.^{(W) 28} Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.” And they worshiped the Lord there.^(X)

The First Census of Israel

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,^{(A) 2} “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually,^{(B) 3} from twenty years old and up, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company. ⁴ A man from each tribe shall be with you, each man the head of his ancestral house.^{(C) 5} These are the names of the men who shall assist you:

¹⁶ These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the divisions of Israel.^(E)

¹⁷ Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, ¹⁸ and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation together. They registered themselves in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and up, individually, ¹⁹ as the Lord had commanded Moses. So he enrolled them in the wilderness of Sinai.

²⁰ The descendants of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war:^{(F) 21} those enrolled of the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred.

²² The descendants of Simeon, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, those of them who were numbered, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war:^{(G) 23} those enrolled of the tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.

²⁴ The descendants of Gad, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war:^{(H) 25} those enrolled of the tribe of Gad were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.

²⁶ The descendants of Judah, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war:^(I)