And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the LORD, were there.

When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

but to Hannah he gave a double portion; for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had shut up her womb.

Her rival taunted her severely, to irritate her, because the LORD had shut up her womb.

As he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she taunted her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

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

She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly.

She vowed a vow, and said, "LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a boy, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head."

So Eli said to her, "How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you."

Do not count your handmaid as a worthless woman; for I have been speaking out of the abundance of my distress and my anguish."

She said, "Let your handmaid find favor in your sight." So the woman went her way, and ate; and her facial expression wasn't sad any more.

They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.

The man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow.

But Hannah did not go up; for she said to her husband, "Not until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and stay there forever. I will offer him as a Nazirite forever, all the days of his life."

And Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what seems good in your eyes. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the LORD establish his word." So the woman waited and nursed her son, until she weaned him.

And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year old bull, and one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young.

And they brought him before the LORD, and his father slaughtered the sacrifice, which he did annually for the LORD. And he brought the child. And they slaughtered the bull, and brought the child to Eli.

She said, "Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the LORD.

Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives he is lent to the LORD." He worshiped the LORD there.

"Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth, For the LORD is a God of knowledge. By him actions are weighed.

"The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's. He has set the world on them.

He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness. For no man shall prevail by strength.

Those who strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. "The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed."

Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child served the LORD before Eli the priest.

and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, "Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw."

If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires"; then he would say, "No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force."

Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, "The LORD give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD." They went to their own home.

The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.

Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

He said to them, "Why do you do such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.

If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall entreat for him?" Notwithstanding, they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them.

A man of God came to Eli, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, I plainly revealed myself to the house of your father, when they were slaves in Egypt to the house of Pharaoh.

And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire.

Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?'

The man of yours, whom I shall not cut off from my altar, shall consume your eyes, and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

"'This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.

I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.

It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Please put me into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"

The child Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

It happened at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see),

and the lamp of God hadn't yet gone out, and Samuel had lain down in the LORD's temple, where the ark of God was;

He ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am; for you called me." He said, "I did not call; lie down again." He went and lay down.

The LORD called yet again, "Samuel." Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am; for you called me." He answered, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.

The LORD called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am; for you called me." Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.

Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, 'Speak, LORD; for your servant hears.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle.

In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.

Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be removed with sacrifice nor offering forever."

Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.

He said, "What is the thing that he has spoken to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to you."

Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him. He said, "It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him."

Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.

All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.

The LORD appeared again in Shiloh; for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered themselves together against Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.

When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD struck us today before the Philistines? Let us get the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh to us, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies."

So the people sent to Shiloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who sits above the cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

The Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp." They said, "Woe to us. For there has not been such a thing before.

Woe to us. Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

Be strong, and behave like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Strengthen yourselves like men, and fight."

So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.

The ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

There ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with earth on his head.

The man said to Eli, "I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army." He said, "How did the matter go, my son?"

He who brought the news answered, "Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."

His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered. When she heard the news that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth; for her pains came on her.

About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, "Do not be afraid; for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer, neither did she regard it.

Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

When the Ashdodites arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. They took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

When they arose early on the next day morning, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only Dagon's torso was intact.

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day.

They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" They answered, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath." So they brought the ark of the God of Israel.

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It happened, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, "They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people."

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people." For there was a deadly confusion throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

The men who did not die were struck with the tumors; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Show us with which we shall send it to its place."

They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return him a trespass offering: then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you."

Then they said, "What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, for the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.

Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

"Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;

And watch; if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it was a chance that happened to us."

The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;

The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the territory of Beth Shemesh.

They of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to the LORD.

The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to the LORD.

When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to the LORD: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

The men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?"

They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down, and bring it up to yourselves."

The men of Kiriath Jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.

It happened, from the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you do return to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the LORD, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."