¹There was one man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the mountain of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.

²He had two wives: the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the second was Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³That man went up from his city year after year to bow down and to sacrifice to Yahweh of hosts at Shiloh; and there the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to Yahweh.

⁴And it happened on the day that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters.

⁵But to Hannah he would give one portion in his anger, for he loved Hannah, and Yahweh had closed up her womb.

⁶Her rival also provoked her with vexation, so as to make her thunder, because Yahweh had closed up her womb.

⁷And so he did, year by year: as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, so she would provoke her. She wept and would not eat.

⁸Her husband Elkanah said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why does your heart quiver? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

⁹After she had eaten in Shiloh and after she had drunk, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh.

¹⁰Bitter in her being, she prayed to Yahweh, weeping and weeping.

¹¹She vowed a vow and said, "O Yahweh of hosts, if you will truly look on the affliction of your maidservant, and you will remember me and do not forget your maidservant, and you give your maidservant a seed of men, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor will not go up on his head."

¹²And it happened, as she prayed much before the face of Yahweh, that Eli was watching her mouth.

¹³As for Hannah, she was speaking to her heart; only her lips were quivering, and her voice was not heard, so Eli reckoned her to be a drunken woman.

¹⁴Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunk? Remove your wine from you."

¹⁵Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord; I am a woman harsh of spirit. I have not drunk wine or strong drink, and I have poured out my being before the face of Yahweh.

¹⁶Do not set your maidservant before the face of a worthless woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and my vexation I have been speaking until now."

¹⁷Eli answered and said, "Go in wholeness, and may the God of Israel grant your request that you asked of him."

¹⁸She said, "May your maidservant find favor in your eyes." Then the woman went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer as it had been.

¹⁹They rose early in the morning and bowed down before the face of Yahweh, then returned and went to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and Yahweh remembered her.

²⁰It happened, at the circuit of the days, that Hannah conceived and bore a son. She called his name Samuel, for "I asked for him from Yahweh."

²¹The man Elkanah and all his household went up to sacrifice to Yahweh the sacrifice of the days, and his vow.

²²But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "Not until the boy is weaned; then I will bring him, and he will appear before the face of Yahweh and dwell there forever."

²³Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what is good in your eyes; dwell until you wean him. Only may Yahweh establish his word." So the woman dwelled and suckled her son until she weaned him.

²⁴She took him up with her when she had weaned him, with three young bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh. The boy was only a boy.

²⁵They slaughtered the young bull and brought the boy to Eli.

²⁶She said, "Pardon me, my lord! By the life of your being, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh.

²⁷For this boy I prayed, and Yahweh gave me my request that I asked of him.

²⁸And also I have lent him to Yahweh; all the days that he is, he is lent to Yahweh." And he bowed down there to Yahweh.