Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote.

It is for the music leader.

God understands me^[a]

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.

Festus travels to Jerusalem to speak to the leaders of the Jews

25 Three days after Festus began to rule in Caesarea, he travelled from there to Jerusalem. ² When he arrived there, the leaders of the priests and the Jewish leaders told him about Paul. They spoke bad things against Paul. ³ They said to Festus, ‘Please listen to us. We really want you to bring Paul here to Jerusalem. You can judge him here. Then we would be very happy.’ They wanted to kill Paul while he was travelling to Jerusalem.

⁴ But Festus answered them, ‘Paul will remain in prison in Caesarea. I myself will return there soon. ⁵ So your leaders should go to Caesarea with me. If this man has done anything wrong, they can speak against him there. I will listen and I will judge.’

⁶ Festus stayed for another eight or ten days in Jerusalem. Then he returned to Caesarea. On the next day, he sat down on his special seat as judge. He said to his soldiers, ‘Bring Paul here!’ ⁷ Some of the Jewish leaders had also come from Jerusalem. When Paul came into the room, they all stood round him. They began to speak to Festus against Paul. They said that he had done very many bad things. But they could not show Festus that these things were really true.

⁸ Then Paul spoke to show what was true. He said, ‘I have not done anything wrong against our Jewish laws or against the temple in Jerusalem. Also, I have not done anything wrong against your Roman ruler, Caesar.’

⁹ Festus wanted to make the Jewish leaders happy. So he asked Paul, ‘I would like to judge this problem in Jerusalem. Would you be happy to go there? Then I can decide if what these men are saying against you is true.’

¹⁰ Paul answered him, ‘I am already in the place where Caesar's officers judge people. This is the right place for you to judge me. I have never done anything wrong against the Jews. You yourself know very well that it is true. ¹¹ Have I done something bad that you should kill me for it? If that is true, then I will agree to it. It is right that I should die. But these Jews are not speaking true words against me. Nobody should let them take hold of me. So now I ask you to send me to Caesar himself. I want him to be the judge.’

¹² Festus talked to his officers about what Paul had said. Then he said to Paul, ‘You have asked to go to Caesar, for him to be your judge. So prepare yourself to go to Caesar!’