Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:

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

Year after year this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord's priests.

And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

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

Being grieved, her distress grieved her so that she was moved because Jehovah shut up about her womb

So it happened year after year, whenever she went up to the house of the Lord, Peninnah provoked her; so she wept and would not eat.

Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking at Shiloh. (Now Eli the priest [was] sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh.)

And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.

{While} she continued to pray before Yahweh, Eli was observing her mouth.

Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman with a despairing spirit. I have not been drinking wine or any intoxicating drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.

And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the Lord. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.

Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.

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.

And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young.

And she said - Pardon, my lord! By the life of thy soul, my lord, - I, am the woman who was standing near thee here, praying unto Yahweh:

For this boy I was praying, and Jehovah has given me my petition which I asked of Him.

And Hannah will pray and say, My heart rejoiced in Jehovah, my horn was lifted up in Jehovah; my mouth was enlarged over mine enemies; for I was glad in thy salvation.

Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. Now the boy was serving Yahweh {in the presence of} Eli the priest.

But the sons of Eli were unthrifty children, and knew not the LORD. For the manner of the priests with the people was:

And the priests' custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;

Also, before they {offered up} the fat as a burnt offering, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest meat for roasting, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but only {raw}."

Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.

Now Samuel [was] serving before Yahweh, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.

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 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.

Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Jehovah, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because Jehovah was minded to slay them.

And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.

A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Didn’t I reveal Myself to your ancestral house when it was in Egypt and belonged to Pharaoh’s palace?

And it was all being left in thy house shall go to worship to him for a piece of silver and a round of bread; and he said, Add me to one of the priesthoods to eat a morsel of bread.

And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;

And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

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

Again Yahweh called Samuel a third time, so he got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, because you called me." Then Eli realized that Yahweh was calling the boy.

Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the boy, so Eli told Samuel, "Go lie down, and then if he calls you, answer, "Speak, LORD, because your servant is listening.'" Then Samuel went and lay down.

For I have told him that I will judge his house forever. For the wickedness which he knoweth, how his sons are ungracious, and he was not wroth therewith.

So Samuel lay down until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of Yahweh, but Samuel was afraid of telling the vision to Eli.

“What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Don’t hide it from me. May God punish you and do so severely if you hide anything from me that He told you.”

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

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

Then the Lord again appeared in Shiloh, for it was in Shiloh that the Lord had revealed himself to Samuel through the word of the Lord.

And the word of Samuel was revealed to all Israel. And Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer. And the Philistines pitched in Aphek.

And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.

And so it was, when the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came into the camp, that all Israel brake out into a loud shout of joy, - so that the earth rang again.

And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.

And the Philistines were afraid, when it was told how that God was come into the host and said, "Woe unto us, for it was never so before this.

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

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

A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came [to] Shiloh that same day, and his clothes [were] torn and earth [was] on his head.

When he came, {there was} Eli sitting on his chair {by the side of the road} watching, because his heart was anxious about the ark of God. Now the man had come {to give his report} in the city, and all the city cried out.

Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.

And the man will say to Eli, I came from the array, and I fled from the array this day; And he will say, What was the word, my son?

The messenger answered, “Israel has fled from the Philistines, and also there was a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

And his daughter in law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.

As she was dying, the women taking care of her said, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay attention.

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

And she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God was captured."

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon 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 upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

So they sent for all the lords of the Philistines to come together there, and said, What are we to do with the ark of the God of Israel? And their answer was, Let the ark of the God of Israel be taken away to Gath. So they took the ark of the God of Israel away.

And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.

Then sent they the ark of God to Ekron, - and so it was, when the ark of God entered Ekron, that the Ekronites made outcry, saying - They have brought round unto me the ark of the God of Israel, to slay me, and my people!

So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.

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

"Five gold tumors and five gold mice," they answered, "according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, since the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. Make images of your tumors and images of the mice that are destroying your land, and you are to give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will remove his pressure from you, your gods, and your land.

And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.

And the cows took the straight way, by the road to Beth-shemesh; they went by the highway, not turning to the right or to the left, and the sound of their voices was clear on the road; and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the edge of Beth-shemesh.

And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.

And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.

The five leaders of the Philistines watched what was happening and then returned to Ekron on the same day.

The number of gold mice also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities of the five rulers, the fortified cities and the outlying villages. The large rock on which the ark of the Lord was placed is in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh to this day.

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 it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

So they came together to Mizpah, and got water, draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah.

And as Samuel was offering the burnt-offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.

So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the borders of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and the borders of it did Israel deliver from the hands of the Philistines: and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life.

He used to go annually on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places.

And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar to the LORD.

And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.

Now the name of his first-born was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

But the matter {was displeasing to Samuel} when they said, "Give us a king to judge us," so Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a mighty man of power.

And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a more handsome person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

And when they had come to the land of Zuf, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and be anxious for us.

(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spoke, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was formerly called a Seer.)

Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go: so they went to the city where the man of God was.

So they went up to the town. As they [were] entering into the middle of the town, Samuel was coming forth to meet them, to go up to the high place.

And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel said, Behold that which is left! set it before thee, and eat; for to this time hath it been kept for thee since I said, I have invited the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

And when they had come down from the high place into the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to rest.

They got up early, {and as dawn was breaking}, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, saying, "Get up, so that I can send you away." So Saul got up and the two of them, he and Samuel, went outside.