The Birth of Samuel
1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite (or FROM RAMATHAIM ZUPHIM) from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. [2]He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
[3]Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. [4]Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. [5]But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. [6]And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. [7]This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. [8]Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?”
[9]Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD'S temple. (that is, tabernacle) [10]In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. [11]And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. [13]Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk [14]and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” [15]“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. [16]Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
[17]Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” [18]She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
[19]Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. [20]So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, (Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for HEARD OF GOD) saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
Hannah Dedicates Samuel
[21]When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, [22]Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.” [23]“Do what seems best to you,” Elkanah her husband told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his (Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac YOUR) word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
[24]After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, ( Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac; Masoretic Text WITH THREE BULLS) an ephah (that is, probably about 3/5 bushel {about 22 liters}) of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. [25]When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, [26]and she said to him, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. [27]I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. [28]So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.
Hannah's Prayer
2 Then Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn (horn here symbolizes strength; also in verse 10) is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. [2]There is no one holy (or NO HOLY ONE) like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
[3]“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. [4]The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. [5]Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away. [6]The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave (Hebrew SHEOL) and raises up. [7]The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. [8]He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.
“For the foundations of the earth are the LORD'S; upon them he has set the world. [9]He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails; [10]those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
[11]Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.
Eli's Wicked Sons
David and Goliath
17 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. [2]Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. [3]The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.
[4]A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet (Hebrew WAS SIX CUBITS AND A SPAN; or about 3 meters) tall. [5]He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (that is, about 125 pounds); [6]on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. [7]His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and it’s iron point weighed six hundred shekels. (that is, about 15 pounds, or 7 kilograms) His shield bearer went ahead of him.
[8]Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man, and have him come down to me. [9]If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects. But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” [10]Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” [11]On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
[12]Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years. [13]Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. [14]David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, [15]but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
[16]For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
[17]Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah (that is, probably about 3/5 of a bushel, or 22 liters) of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. [18]Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. (Hebrew THOUSAND) See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance (or SOME TOKEN; or SOME PLEDGE OF SPOILS) from them. [19]They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
[20]Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as its army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. [21]Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. [22]David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. [23]As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. [24]When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. [25]Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel.”
[26]David asked the man standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” [27]They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” [28]When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” [29]“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” [30]He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. [31]What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
[32]David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” [33]Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” [34]But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, [35]I went after it, struck it and killed it. [36]Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. [37]The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
[38]Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. [39]David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. [40]Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
[41]Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. [42]He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. [43]He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. [44]“Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” [45]David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. [46]This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the carcass of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. [47]All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
[48]As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. [49]Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. [50]So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. [51]David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut his head off with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. [52]Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath (some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew A VALLEY) and to the gates of Ekron. [53]When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. [54]David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.
[55]As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.” [56]The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.” [57]As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head. [58]“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him. David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
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