1 Samuel 1 — Read & Listen Online

A Beloved Wife with Empty Arms

Chapter 1.

There was a man from Ramathaim-zophim, in the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

Year after year he would go up from his hometown to worship and sacrifice to the Father of heaven's armies at Shiloh, where Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as priests of our Father. On the day Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, even though our Father had closed her womb.

And because our Father had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her bitterly, to make her miserable. This went on year after year; whenever Hannah went up to the house of our Father, Peninnah would provoke her, so that she wept and would not eat.

Her husband Elkanah would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why won't you eat? Why is your heart so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

Hannah Pours Her Soul Before the Father

Once, after they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of our Father.

Deeply distressed, she prayed to our Father and wept bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, "O Father of heaven's armies, if you will only look upon the suffering of your servant and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to our Father all the days of his life, and no razor will ever touch his head." ¹

As she kept on praying before our Father, Eli watched her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart; her lips were moving, but her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.

He said to her, "How long will you stay drunk? Put away your wine."

"No, my lord," Hannah answered. "I am a woman deeply troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before our Father." "Do not take your servant for a worthless woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief."

Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the Father of Israel grant what you have asked of him."

She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then the woman went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer downcast.

Our Father Remembers: Samuel Is Born

Early the next morning they rose and worshiped before our Father, then returned to their home in Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and our Father remembered her.

In the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked our Father for him." ²

When Elkanah and all his household went up to offer the yearly sacrifice to our Father and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She told her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will bring him to appear before our Father, and he will stay there forever."

"Do what seems best to you," her husband Elkanah told her. "Stay until you have weaned him; only may our Father keep his word." So Hannah stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

After she had weaned him, she took the boy up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, about twenty-five pounds of flour, and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of our Father at Shiloh; and the child was young. They slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

and Hannah said, "Oh, my lord, as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to our Father." I prayed for this child, and our Father has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him over to our Father. For his whole life he is given to him." And he worshiped our Father there.

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