Now the LORD had closed her womb. Her rival would provoke her severely so that she complained loudly because the LORD had closed her womb.

Hannah got up after she had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the chair by the doorpost of the tent of the LORD.

Deeply distressed, she prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

As she continued to pray in the LORD's presence, Eli was watching her mouth.

Hannah was praying inwardly. Her lips were quivering, and her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.

She said, "Let your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

By the time of the next year's sacrifice, Hannah had become pregnant and had borne a son. She named him Samuel because she said, "I asked the LORD for him."

Hannah did not go up because she had told her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I'll take him to appear in the LORD's presence and remain there forever."

"Do what you want," Elkanah told her. "Stay until you have weaned him, only may the LORD bring about what you've said." So Hannah stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

Then, when she had weaned him, she brought him up with her to Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh, and the boy was young.

Those who had an abundance of bread now hire themselves out, and those who were hungry hunger no more. While the barren woman gives birth to seven children, she who had many children languishes.

His mother would make a small robe for him, and she would bring it each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "May the LORD give you descendants from this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD." Then they would return to their home.

The LORD took note of Hannah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel continued to grow, and the LORD was constantly with him.

Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and ready to give birth. When she heard the report about the capture of the Ark of God and that her father-in-law and husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth, because her labor pains suddenly began.

As she was about to die, the women standing around her said, "Don't be afraid! You've given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay attention.

She had named the boy Ichabod,saying, "Glory has departed from Israel," because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead.

She said, "Glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God has been captured."

Then Samuel took a stone, placed it between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer. He said, "The LORD has helped us this far."

And when the time came to give Saul's daughter Merab to David, she was given as a wife to Adriel of Meholah.

Saul told himself, "I'll give her to him and she can be a snare to him and the Philistines will harm him." So Saul told David, "For a second time you can be my son-in-law today."

He risked his life and struck down the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a spectacular deliverance for all Israel. You saw that and rejoiced, so why would you do wrong and shed innocent blood by killing David without cause?"

Then Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed with a cover of goat hair placed at its head. Then she covered it with clothes.

She told her young men, "Go ahead of me, I'll be coming right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

She was riding on the donkey and as she went down a protected part of the mountain, David was there with his men, coming down to meet her, and she went toward them.

When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down from the donkey and fell on her face before David, prostrating herself on the ground.

She fell at his feet and pleaded, "Your majesty, let the guilt be on me alone, and please let your servant speak to you. Listen to the words of your servant.

David took from her what she had brought him and told her, "Go up to your house in peace. Look, I've heard your request and will grant it."

Abigail returned to Nabal, and he was there in his house holding a festival like the festival of a king. Nabal's heart was glad, and he was very drunk, so she didn't tell him anything at all until morning.

She got up, prostrated herself face down on the ground, and replied, "Your servant would be a slave to wash the feet of your majesty's servants."

Then Abigail quickly got up and got on a donkey, with five young women walking behind her. She followed David's messengers, and she became his wife.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out loudly. The woman told Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"

Saul told her, "What does he look like?" She said, "An old man is coming up, and he's wrapped in a robe." Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed low to the ground and prostrated himself.

Then the woman came to Saul and saw that he was very disturbed. She told him, "Look, your servant obeyed you. I put my life into your hands, and I listened to your words that you spoke to me.

Both his servants and the woman urged him, and so he listened to them. He got up off the ground and sat on the bed. The woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.

She brought it to Saul and to his servants, and they ate. Then they got up and went out that night.