Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
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.[a] 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.’[b]
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.’[c]
Hannah praises the Lord
2 Hannah prayed and she said,
‘I am very happy when I think about what the Lord has done.
The Lord has made me very strong.
I can laugh at my enemies because you, Lord, have saved me.
That makes me very happy.
2 Nobody else is holy like the Lord.
There is no other God except you, our God.
You are the only Rock where we can be safe.[a]
3 Do not boast or speak proud words!
The Lord is a God who knows everything.
He judges everything that people do.
4 The weapons of brave soldiers may break.
But weak people who fall become strong again.
5 People who had plenty of food to eat have to work for it now.
But the people who were hungry have enough food now.
Women who could not have any children have now given birth to seven children.
But those who had many children are now alone.
6 The Lord gives both life and death.
He sends some people to their graves,
and he raises other people up.
7 The Lord makes some people poor
and he makes other people rich.
He causes some people to be important
and he puts other people low down.
8 He raises up weak people from the ground.
He lifts poor people up out of the dirt.
He makes them become friends of princes.
He puts them in places of honour.
The deep places of the earth belong to the Lord.
He built the world on a strong foundation.
9 He takes care of his faithful people.
But he puts wicked people in a dark place where they can do nothing.
It is not a person's own strength that makes him great.
10 The Lord will destroy his enemies.
He will shout against them from heaven like loud thunder.
The Lord will judge everyone on earth.
He will make his king strong.
He will give power to the king that he has chosen to rule.’
11 Every day, the priests do their work to serve God. They offer the same sacrifices to God again and again. But those sacrifices can never take away people's sins. 12 But Christ, our special priest, offered one sacrifice to take away our sins. He did that once, for all time. After that, he sat down at God's right side to rule with him. 13 Since then, he waits for God to win against his enemies completely. They will become like a place for him to put his feet. 14 So, as a result of his one sacrifice, Christ has made God's people completely clean for all time.
15 God's Holy Spirit also shows us that these things are true. He says this first:[a]
16 ‘The Lord God says:
After the time of the old agreement,
I will make a new agreement with my people.
It will be like this:
I will put my laws deep inside them.
I will put them into their thoughts.’
17 Then he says this:[b]
‘I will not continue to think about their sins
when they do not obey my laws.’
18 So that is the way that God forgives our sins. When God has done that, we do not need to have any other sacrifice to take away our sins.
We must continue to trust God
19 So then, Christian friends, we see that Jesus died as a sacrifice on our behalf. Because of that, we may go into God's Most Holy Place. We are not afraid to do that. 20 Jesus has opened a new way for us to come near to God. That way gives us life with God. It leads us through the curtain into God's Most Holy Place. Jesus opened that curtain for us when he offered his own body to God as a sacrifice.[a] 21 We have a great priest who rules the people of God's house. 22 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. But we must be honest and we must continue to trust him. He has made us clean from the dirt of our sins. Our thoughts no longer give us trouble about our sins. We have become clean. It is like he has washed our bodies with clean water.[b]
23 We know that we can trust God to do the things that he has promised. So we must continue to expect those things. We must tell other people that we trust God. We should not stop doing that. 24 We should think about how we can help one another. We want everyone to show love to each other. We want everyone to do good things to help one another. 25 Some people have stopped meeting with the group of Christians. But that is not good. We should all continue to meet together. We need to help one another to be strong and brave. That is now even more important, because the Lord's great day is coming. You know that the Lord will return soon.
Jesus talks about future events
13 Then Jesus left the temple. While he was leaving, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, look at these great buildings! The stones in the walls of God's House are really great!’
2 Jesus said to him, ‘Yes, look at all these large buildings! But I tell you, enemies will completely destroy them. Not even one stone will remain on top of another stone.’
3 After that, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. He could look across the valley at the temple. Peter, James, John and Andrew went together to talk with him. The crowd was not there. 4 They said to Jesus, ‘Please tell us when all these things will happen. What will show us that they will soon happen?’
5 Jesus began to say to them, ‘Be careful! Some people will tell you things that are not true. Do not believe those people. 6 Many people will say that they have come on my behalf. They will say, “I am the Messiah!” and they will deceive many people. 7 You will hear about wars. And there will be reports about wars in other places. Do not be afraid. Those things must happen, but that is not yet the end of everything. 8 People in one country will attack the people in another country. Kings and their armies will fight against other kings and their armies. The ground will shake in many different places. In some places, people will be hungry, with no food. Those things are like the first pains that a mother has before her baby is born.
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