The Daily Audio Bible

Samuel’s birth

1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite^[a] from the highlands of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was from the tribe of Ephraim, and he was the son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph. ² Elkanah had two wives, one named Hannah and the other named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah didn’t.

³ Every year this man would leave his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of heavenly forces in Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons Hophni and Phinehas were the Lord’s priests. ⁴ Whenever he sacrificed, Elkanah would give parts of the sacrifice to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. ⁵ But he would give only one part of it to Hannah, though he loved her, because the Lord had kept her from conceiving.^{[b] 6} And because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving, her rival would make fun of her mercilessly, just to bother her. ⁷ So that is what took place year after year. Whenever Hannah went to the Lord’s house, Peninnah would make fun of her. Then she would cry and wouldn’t eat anything.

⁸ “Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah would say to her. “Why won’t you eat? Why are you^[c] so sad? Aren’t I worth more to you than ten sons?”

⁹ One time, after eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah got up and presented herself before the Lord.^[d] (Now Eli the priest was sitting in the chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple.) ¹⁰ Hannah was very upset and couldn’t stop crying as she prayed to the Lord. ¹¹ Then she made this promise: “Lord of heavenly forces, just look at your servant’s pain and remember me! Don’t forget your servant! Give her a boy! Then I’ll give him to the Lord for his entire life. No razor will ever touch his head.”

¹² As she kept praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. ¹³ Now Hannah was praying in her heart; her lips were moving, but her voice was silent, so Eli thought she was drunk.

¹⁴ “How long will you act like a drunk? Sober up!” Eli told her.

¹⁵ “No sir!” Hannah replied. “I’m just a very sad woman. I haven’t had any wine or beer but have been pouring out my heart to the Lord. ¹⁶ Don’t think your servant is some good-for-nothing woman. This whole time I’ve been praying out of my great worry and trouble!”

¹⁷ Eli responded, “Then go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you’ve asked from him.”

¹⁸ “Please think well of me, your servant,” Hannah said. Then the woman went on her way, ate some food, and wasn’t sad any longer.^[e]

¹⁹ They got up early the next morning and worshipped the Lord. Then they went back home to Ramah. Elkanah had sex with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, which means “I asked the Lord for him.”^[f]

Samuel’s dedication

²¹ When Elkanah and all his household went up to make the annual sacrifice and keep his solemn promise, ²² Hannah didn’t go.

“I’ll bring the boy when he is weaned,” she told her husband, “so he can be presented to the Lord and stay there permanently. I will offer him as a nazirite forever.”^[g]

²³ “Do what seems best to you,” said her husband Elkanah. “Stay here until you’ve weaned him. But may the Lord bring to pass what you’ve^[h] promised.” So the woman stayed home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

²⁴ When he had been weaned and was still very young,^[i] Hannah took him, along with a three-year-old bull,^[j] an ephah^[k] of flour, and a jar of wine, and brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh. ²⁵ They slaughtered the bull, then brought the boy to Eli.

²⁶ “Excuse me, sir!” Hannah said. “As surely as you live, sir, I am the woman who stood here next to you, praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed for this boy, and the Lord gave me what I asked from him. ²⁸ So now I give this boy back to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

Then they worshipped there before the Lord.^[l]

Hannah’s song

2 Then Hannah prayed:

¹¹ Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy served the Lord under Eli the priest.

Corruption of Eli’s sons

¹² Now Eli’s sons were despicable men who didn’t know the Lord. ¹³ This was how the priest was supposed to act with the people: Whenever anyone made a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s assistant would come with a three-pronged fork in hand. ¹⁴ He would thrust it into the cauldron or the pot.^[o] Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is how it was done for all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.

¹⁵ But with Eli’s sons,^[p] even before the fat was burned, the priest’s assistant would come and say to the person offering the sacrifice, “Give the priest some meat to roast. He won’t accept boiled meat from you.”^{[q] 16} If anyone said, “Let the fat be burned off first, as usual, then take whatever you like for yourself,” the assistant would reply, “No, hand it over now. If not, I’ll take it by force.” ¹⁷ The sin of these priestly assistants was very serious in the Lord’s sight because they were disrespecting the Lord’s own offering.

¹⁸ Now Samuel was serving the Lord. He was a young boy, clothed in a linen priestly vest.^{[r] 19} His mother would make a small robe for him and take it to him every year when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. ²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife: “May the Lord replace^[s] the child of this woman that you gave back to the Lord.” Then they would return home. ²¹ The Lord paid attention to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the Lord’s service.

Sabbath healing

5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, ³ and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.^{[a] 5} A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir,^[b] I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

¹⁰ The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

¹¹ He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” ¹³ The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

¹⁶ As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” ¹⁸ For this reason the Jewish leaders wanted even more to kill him—not only because he was doing away with the Sabbath but also because he called God his own Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

Work of the Father and the Son

¹⁹ Jesus responded to the Jewish leaders, “I assure you that the Son can’t do anything by himself except what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he does. He will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel. ²¹ As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so too does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. ²² The Father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son ²³ so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.