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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

No other is holy as the Lord, for there is no other God but you: there is no Rock like our God.

He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the evil-doers will come to their end in the dark night, for by strength no man will overcome.

And more than this, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was making the offering, Give me some of the flesh to be cooked for the priest; he has no taste for meat cooked in water, but would have you give it uncooked.

But Samuel did the work of the Lord's house, while he was a child, dressed in a linen ephod.

If one man does wrong to another, God will be his judge: but if a man's sin is against the Lord, who will take up his cause? But they gave no attention to the voice of their father, for it was the Lord's purpose to send destruction on them.

For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes.

But one man of your family will not be cut off by my hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their end by the sword of men.

And again the Lord said, Samuel. And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here am I; for you certainly said my name. But he said in answer, I said nothing, my son; go to your rest again.

And when she was very near death the women who were with her said, Have no fear, for you have given birth to a son. But she made no answer and gave no attention to it.

But the hand of the Lord was hard on the people of Ashdod and he sent disease on them through all the country of Ashdod.

But after they had taken it away, the hand of the Lord was stretched out against the town for its destruction: and the signs of disease came out on all the men of the town, small and great.

And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it without an offering, but send him a sin-offering with it: then you will have peace again, and it will be clear to you why the weight of his hand has not been lifted from you.

If it goes by the land of Israel to Beth-shemesh, then this great evil is his work; but if not, then we may be certain that the evil was not his doing, but was the working of chance.

But the Lord sent destruction on seventy men of the people of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark of the Lord; and great was the sorrow of the people for the destruction which the Lord had sent on them.

And while Samuel was offering the burned offering, the Philistines came near for the attack on Israel; but at the thunder of the Lord's voice that day the Philistines were overcome with fear, and they gave way before Israel.

And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them.

Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler.

Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day.

But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us,

So they went through the hill-country of Ephraim and through the land of Shalishah, but they saw no sign of them: then they went through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there: and they went through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not come across them.

But the servant said to him, See now, in this town there is a man of God, who is highly honoured, and everything he says comes true: let us go there now; it may be that he will give us directions about our journey.

Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what are we to take the man? all our bread is gone, and we have no offering to take to the man of God: what are we to do?

But the servant said in answer, I have here a fourth part of a shekel of silver: I will give that to the man of God, and he will give us directions about our way.

And on their way down to the end of the town, Samuel said to Saul, Give your servant orders to go on in front of us, (so he went on,) but you keep here, so that I may give you the word of God.

And Saul, answering him, said, He gave us word that the asses had come back. But he said nothing to him of Samuel's words about the kingdom.

But today you are turned away from your God, who himself has been your saviour from all your troubles and sorrows; and you have said to him, Put a king over us. So now, take your places before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.

Then he made the tribe of Benjamin come near by families, and the family of the Matrites was taken: and from them, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken: but when they went in search of him he was nowhere to be seen.

But certain good-for-nothing persons said, How is this man to be our saviour? And having no respect for him, they gave him no offering.

But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them.

Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord, worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us safe from those who are against us and we will be your servants.

If in the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you, then all will be well:

But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers.

Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be his servants with all your heart;

And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on teaching you the good and right way.

But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.

And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear.

And he went on waiting there for seven days, the time fixed by Samuel: but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were starting to go away from him.

But now, your authority will not go on: the Lord, searching for a man who is pleasing to him in every way, has given him the place of ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord gave you orders to do.

And Saul, with Jonathan his son and the people who were with them, was waiting in Geba in the land of Benjamin: but the tents of the Philistines were in Michmash.

But all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get their ploughs and blades and axes and hooks made sharp;

Now one day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who was with him, looking after his arms, Come, let us go over to the Philistine force over there. But he said nothing to his father.

But if they say, Come up to us; then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hands: and this will be the sign to us.

And all the people were with Saul, about twenty thousand men, and the fight was general through all the hill-country of Ephraim; but Saul made a great error that day, by putting the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes food before evening comes and I have given punishment to those who are against me. So the people had not a taste of food.

But not a man put his hand to his mouth for fear of the curse.

But Jonathan, having no knowledge of the oath his father had put on the people, stretching out the rod which was in his hand, put the end of it in the honey, and put it to his mouth; then his eyes were made bright.

And Saul, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to go down after the Philistines? will you give them up into the hands of Israel? But he gave him no answer that day.

For, by the living Lord, the saviour of Israel, even if the sinner is Jonathan, my son, death will certainly be his fate. But not a man among all the people gave him any answer.

But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse.

Why then did you not do the orders of the Lord, but by violently taking their goods did evil in the eyes of the Lord?

But the people took some of their goods, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which were put to the curse, to make an offering of them to the Lord your God in Gilgal.

Then he said, Great is my sin: but still, give me honour now before the heads of my people and before Israel, and come back with me so that I may give worship to the Lord your God.

And Samuel never saw Saul again till the day of his death; but Samuel was sorrowing for Saul: and it was no longer the Lord's pleasure for Saul to be king over Israel.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not take note of his face or how tall he is, because I will not have him: for the Lord's view is not man's; man takes note of the outer form, but the Lord sees the heart.

If he is able to have a fight with me and overcome me, then we will be your servants: but if I am able to overcome him, then you will be our servants and do work for us.

Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel on which you have put shame.

So David overcame the Philistine with his leather band and a stone, wounding the Philistine and causing his death: but David had no sword in his hand.

And David took the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem, but the metal war-dress and the arms he put in his tent.

And Saul was very angry and this saying was unpleasing to him; and he said, They have given David credit for tens of thousands, and to me for only thousands: what more is there for him but the kingdom?

But David was loved by all Israel and Judah, for he went out and came in before them.

And Saul said to David, Here is my oldest daughter Merab, whom I will give you for your wife: only be strong for me, fighting in the Lord's wars. For Saul said, Let it not be through me that his fate comes to him, but through the Philistines.

But when the time came to give Merab, Saul's daughter, to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholath.

And Saul said, Then say to David, The king has no desire for any bride-price, but only for the private parts of a hundred Philistines so that the king may get the better of his haters. But it was in Saul's mind that David might come to his end by the hands of the Philistines.

And Saul gave orders to his son Jonathan and to all his servants to put David to death. But Saul's son Jonathan had great delight in David.

And Saul would have sent his spear through him, pinning him to the wall, but he got away and the spear went into the wall: and that night David went in flight and got away.

But David took his oath again and said, Your father sees that I am dear to you; so he says to himself, Let Jonathan have no idea of this, for it will be a grief to him; but as the Lord is living, and as your soul is living, there is only a step between me and death.

And David said to Jonathan, Tomorrow is the new moon, and I will not be seated with the king at his table: but let me go to a safe place in the country till the evening.

If he says, It is well, your servant will be at peace: but if he is angry, then it will be clear to you that he has an evil purpose in mind against me.

So, then, be kind to your servant; for you have been united with your servant in an agreement made before the Lord: but if there is any wrongdoing in me, put me to death yourself; why take me to your father?

But if I say to the boy, See, the arrow has gone past you: then go on your way, for the Lord has sent you away.

And the king took his seat, as at other times, by the wall: and Jonathan was in front, and Abner was seated by Saul's side, but there was no one in David's seat.

But Saul said nothing that day, for his thought was, Something has taken place making him unclean; it is clear that he is not clean.

But the boy had no idea what was going on; only Jonathan and David had knowledge of it.

And the priest, answering David, said, I have no common bread here but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.

And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not go on living in this place but go into the land of Judah. Then David went away and came to the woodland of Hereth.

Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests.

Keep here with me and have no fear; for he who has designs on my life has designs on yours: but with me you will be safe.

And David kept in the waste land, in safe places, waiting in the hill-country in the waste land of Ziph. And Saul was searching for him every day, but God did not give him up into his hands

And they went back and came to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the waste land of Maon, in the dry land south of the waste land.

But a man came to Saul saying, Be quick and come; for the Philistines have made an attack on the land.

Look! you have seen today how the Lord gave you up into my hands even now in the hollow of the rocks: and some would have had me put you to death, but I had pity on you: for I said, Never will my hand be lifted up against my lord, who has been marked with the holy oil.

May the Lord be judge between me and you, and may the Lord give me my rights against you, but my hand will never be lifted up against you.

There is an old saying, From the evil-doer comes evil: but my hand will never be lifted up against you.

And he said to David, You are right and I am wrong: for you have given me back good, but I have given you evil.

And David gave Saul his oath. And Saul went back to his house; but David and his men went up to their safe place.

Now this man was named Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail: she was a woman of good sense and pleasing looks: but the man was cruel and evil in his ways; he was of the family of Caleb.

But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail, David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our master, and he gave them a rough answer.

But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields:

But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep.

And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.

And Saul put up his tents on the hill of Hachilah, which is in front of the waste land on the road. But David was in the waste land, and he saw that Saul was coming after him.

Never will my hand be stretched out against the man marked with the holy oil; but take the spear which is by his head and the vessel of water, and let us go.