Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a song that David wrote.

I trust God to keep me safe

Elkanah and his family go to Shiloh

1 There was a man whose name was Elkanah. He lived in a town called Ramah.^[a] This town was in the hill country where Ephraim's tribe lived. Elkanah was the son of Jeroham. Jeroham was the son of Elihu. Elihu was the son of Tohu. Tohu was the son of Zuph. Zuph belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. ² Elkanah had two wives. One wife was called Hannah and the other wife was called Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah did not have any children.

³ Every year, Elkanah left his home in Ramah to go to the town of Shiloh.^[b] He went there to worship the Lord Almighty and to offer sacrifices to him.^[c] Hophni and Phinehas served the Lord at Shiloh as his priests. Eli was their father.

⁴ Every year, when Elkanah offered his sacrifices to God, he gave some of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to her sons and daughters. ⁵ Because Elkanah loved Hannah very much, he always gave twice as much meat to her. But the Lord had not let Hannah give birth to any children.

⁶ Peninnah was not kind to Hannah and she made Hannah very upset. She did this because the Lord had not let Hannah give birth to any children. ⁷ This happened every year when they went to the Lord's house in Shiloh. Peninnah would cause Hannah to be upset. Then Hannah would weep. She would refuse to eat anything. ⁸ Hannah's husband, Elkanah, said to her, ‘Why should you weep and refuse to eat? Do not be so sad. I love you, and that is better than ten sons.’

Hannah and Eli

⁹ One day they had offered sacrifices at Shiloh. They had finished eating and drinking. Hannah stood up to pray to God. Eli the priest was sitting on his chair beside the door of the Lord's temple.^{[d] 10} Hannah was very upset as she prayed to the Lord. She could not stop weeping. ¹¹ She made a promise to God. She prayed, ‘Lord Almighty, you can see how sad I am. Please be kind to me, your servant. Remember me and do not forget me. Please give a son to me, your servant. If you do that, I will give him to serve you for all of his life. Nobody will ever cut his hair.’^[e]

¹² Hannah continued to pray to the Lord. Eli watched her mouth while it moved. ¹³ Hannah was praying quietly inside herself. Her lips moved but Eli could not hear her voice. So he thought that she was drunk. ¹⁴ He said to her, ‘Are you always drunk like that? Throw away your wine.’

¹⁵ Hannah replied, ‘No, sir, I have not drunk any wine or strong drink. I have much trouble deep inside myself. I have told the Lord about all my problems. ¹⁶ Please sir, do not think that I am a bad woman. I am praying like this because I am very sad and upset.’

¹⁷ Eli said to Hannah, ‘Go and let your mind have peace. I pray that Israel's God will give you what you have asked him for.’

¹⁸ Hannah said to him, ‘I will try to do what pleases you, sir.’

Then Hannah went away and she ate some food. Her face was not sad now.

¹⁹ Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and they worshipped the Lord. Then they went back to their home in Ramah. Elkanah had sex with his wife Hannah. The Lord remembered what she had asked him for. ²⁰ Hannah became pregnant. Later, she gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samuel’. She said, ‘His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.’^[f]

Paul's message is from God

¹¹ The good news that I tell people did not come from any person on earth. I want you to know that, my friends. ¹² Nobody on earth gave it to me. Nobody taught it to me. No, it was Jesus Christ himself who showed it to me clearly.

¹³ You know about the things that I did before, when I obeyed the Jewish rules. I caused very much trouble against God's church. I tried to destroy those people completely. ¹⁴ I obeyed the Jewish rules better than many other Jews who were my friends. I tried very much to obey the ideas that our Jewish ancestors taught. ¹⁵ But God had chosen me to serve him even before I was born. He chose me to be his servant because he is very kind. ¹⁶ He decided to show his Son clearly to me, so that I could tell the Gentiles about him.^[a] When God chose me to do that, I did not talk about it with any person. ¹⁷ Nor did I go to Jerusalem to see Christ's apostles there. Those men were already his apostles before I was. But I did not go to talk to them. Instead, I went immediately to the region of Arabia.^[b] Later, I went back to the city of Damascus.

¹⁸ Then, three years later, I did go to Jerusalem. I stayed there with Christ's apostle Peter for 15 days, so that he could teach me. ¹⁹ I did not see any other apostles, except James, who is the Lord's brother. ²⁰ God knows that what I am writing to you is completely true! ²¹ Later, I went to different places in Syria and Cilicia.^{[c] 22} The Christians in the churches in Judea had never met me.^{[d] 23} They had only heard people say this about me: ‘This man caused bad trouble against us Christians before. He tried to destroy God's message about Jesus. But now he himself is telling people the good news about Jesus, so that they believe.’ ²⁴ When the believers in Judea heard that, they praised God because of me.