1 Samuel 1:1–8

HANNAH’S VOW

1 There was a man from Ramathaim-zophima inA the hill country of Ephraim.b His name was Elkanahc son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives,d the first named Hannahe and the second Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless. 3 This man would go up from his town every yearf to worship and to sacrificeg to the Lord of Armies at Shiloh,h where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were the Lord’s priests.

4 Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meati to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters. 5 But he gave a doubleB portionj to Hannah, for he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving. 6 Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving. 7 Year after year, when she went up to the Lord’s house,k her rival taunted her in this way. Hannah would weep and would not eat. 8 “Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband, Elkanah, would ask. “Why won’t you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”l