¹ Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite of the hill-country of Ephraim, named Elkanah; he was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite:

² And he had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah: and Peninnah was the mother of children, but Hannah had no children.

³ Now this man went up from his town every year to give worship and to make offerings to the Lord of armies in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.

⁴ And when the day came for Elkanah to make his offering, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, their part of the feast:

⁵ But to Hannah he gave one part, though Hannah was very dear to him, but the Lord had not let her have children.

⁶ And the other wife did everything possible to make her unhappy, because the Lord had not let her have children;

⁷ And year by year, whenever she went up to the house of the Lord, she kept on attacking her, so that Hannah gave herself up to weeping and would take no food.

⁸ Then her husband Elkanah said to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? and why are you taking no food? why is your heart troubled? am I not more to you than ten sons?

⁹ So after they had taken food and wine in the guest room, Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was seated by the pillars of the doorway of the Temple of the Lord.

¹⁰ And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord.

¹¹ And she made an oath, and said, O Lord of armies, if you will truly take note of the sorrow of your servant, not turning away from me but keeping me in mind, and will give me a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.

¹² Now while she was a long time in prayer before the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth.

¹³ For Hannah's prayer came from her heart, and though her lips were moving she made no sound: so it seemed to Eli that she was overcome with wine.

¹⁴ And Eli said to her, How long are you going to be the worse for drink? Put away the effects of your wine from you.

¹⁵ And Hannah, answering him, said, No, my lord, I am a woman whose spirit is broken with sorrow: I have not taken wine or strong drink, but I have been opening my heart before the Lord.

¹⁶ Do not take your servant to be a good-for-nothing woman: for my words have come from my stored-up sorrow and pain.

¹⁷ Then Eli said to her, Go in peace: and may the God of Israel give you an answer to the prayer you have made to him.

¹⁸ And she said, May your servant have grace in your eyes. So the woman went away, and took part in the feast, and her face was no longer sad.

¹⁹ And early in the morning they got up, and after worshipping before the Lord they went back to Ramah, to their house: and Elkanah had connection with his wife; and the Lord kept her in mind.

²⁰ Now the time came when Hannah, being with child, gave birth to a son; and she gave him the name Samuel, Because, she said, I made a prayer to the Lord for him.

²¹ And the man Elkanah with all his family went up to make the year's offering to the Lord, and to give effect to his oath.

²² But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I will not go till the child has been taken from the breast, and then I will take him with me and put him before the Lord, where he may be for ever.

²³ And her husband Elkanah said to her, Do whatever seems right to you, but not till you have taken him from the breast; only may the Lord do as he has said. So the woman, waiting there, gave her son milk till he was old enough to be taken from the breast.

²⁴ Then when she had done so, she took him with her, with a three-year old ox and an ephah of meal and a skin full of wine, and took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh: now the child was still very young.

²⁵ And when they had made an offering of the ox, they took the child to Eli.

²⁶ And she said, O my lord, as your soul is living, my lord, I am that woman who was making a prayer to the Lord here by your side:

²⁷ My prayer was for this child; and the Lord has given him to me in answer to my request:

²⁸ So I have given him to the Lord; for all his life he is the Lord's. Then he gave the Lord worship there.

¹ And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

² Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child.

³ And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son.

⁴ Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food;

⁵ For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

⁶ Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name;

⁷ But he said to me, You are with child and will give birth to a son; and now do not take any wine or strong drink or let anything unclean be your food; for the child will be separate to God from his birth to the day of his death.

⁸ Then Manoah made prayer to the Lord, and said, O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and make clear to us what we are to do for the child who is to come.

⁹ And God gave ear to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came to the woman again when she was seated in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

¹⁰ So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day.

¹¹ And Manoah got up and went after his wife, and came up to the man and said to him, Are you the man who was talking to this woman? And he said, I am.

¹² And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work?

¹³ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the woman take note of what I have said to her.

¹⁴ She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her orders to do.

¹⁵ And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us keep you while we make ready a young goat for you.

¹⁶ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord.

¹⁷ Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may give you honour?

¹⁸ But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder?

¹⁹ So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering, offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things.

²⁰ And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down on their faces to the earth.

²¹ But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord.

²² And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

²³ But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

²⁴ So the woman gave birth to a son, and gave him the name Samson; and he became a man and the blessing of the Lord was on him.

²⁵ And the spirit of the Lord first came on him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.