And so he used to do year after year; {whenever} she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her so that she would weep and would not eat.

She [was] {deeply troubled}, so she prayed to Yahweh and wept bitterly.

She {made a vow} and said: "O Yahweh of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the misery of your female servant, and will remember me, and not forget your female servant, and will give to your female servant {a male child} then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor will never pass over his head."

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

And she said, "May your female slave find favor in your sight." Then the woman went on her way and ate [something], and {her face did not look sad any longer}.

{In due time}, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She called his name Samuel, for [she said], "I requested him from Yahweh."

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "Once the boy [is] weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear before Yahweh; and he will remain there forever."

So her husband Elkanah said to her, "{Do what seems right to you}; stay until you wean him. Only may Yahweh fulfill his word." So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.

Then she brought him up with her when she had weaned him, [along] with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh while the boy [was still] young.

She said, "Excuse me, my lord. As {you live}, my lord, I [am] the woman who stood with you in this [place] to pray to Yahweh.

Those who were full must hire themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry will become fat. As for the infertile, she will bear seven, but [she who has] many sons withers away.

His mother used to make for him a small robe and take it to him {year by year} whenever she came up with her husband to offer the {annual sacrifice}.

And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and he said, "May Yahweh give you an offspring from this woman in place of the petitioned [one] that she requested from Yahweh." Then they went to their home.

Yahweh took note of Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters, while the young man Samuel grew up with Yahweh.

Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, [was] pregnant and [about] to give birth. When she heard the news concerning the capture of the ark of God and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she {went into labor} and gave birth, because her labor pains came upon her.

Just before the time of her death, those {attending her} said, "Do not fear, for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer, or {pay any attention}.

She called the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel," referring to the capture of the ark of God and concerning her father-in-law and husband.

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

So Samuel took a single stone and put [it] between Mizpah and Shen, and he named it Ebenezer and said, "Up to here Yahweh has helped us."

{But} at the time Saul's daughter Merab [was] to be given to David, she was given [instead] to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

And Saul thought, "I will give her to him, so that she may be a snare for him and the hand of [the] Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "For a second [time] you can become my son-in-law today."

And Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, "He [is] ill."

Then Abigail {quickly took} two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she put [them] on the donkeys.

Then she said to her servants, "Go ahead before me; look, I am coming after you," but she did not tell her husband Nabal.

{And then}, [as] she [was] riding on the donkey and [was] going down the ravine of the mountain, David and his men [were] coming down to meet her, and she met them.

When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell on her face before {David's anger}, and she bowed down to the ground.

She fell at his feet and said, "On me, my lord, [be] the guilt! Please let your female servant speak {to you personally}! Hear the words of your female servant!

Then David took from her hand what she had brought for him, and he said to her, "Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to your voice, and I have {granted your request}."

Then Abigail went to Nabal, and look, {he was holding a feast} in his house like the feast of the king. {Nabal was enjoying himself}, and he [was] very drunk, so she did not tell him a thing, {nothing at all}, until the light of morning.

She got up and bowed down [with] her face to the ground and said, "Here is your female servant, as a slave to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

Then Abigail {quickly got up} and rode on the donkey, [along with] five of her maidservants who {attended her}, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice, and the woman said to Saul, "Why did you deceive me? You [are] Saul!"

Then he said to her, "What [is] his appearance?" She said, "An old man [is] coming up, and {he is wrapped in a robe}." Then Saul realized that it was Samuel, and he knelt [with] his face to the ground and bowed down.

Then the woman came to Saul and realized that he was absolutely terrified, so she said to him, "Look, your female servant {has obeyed you}, and I have {risked my life}. I have listened to your words that you have spoken to me.

Now the woman had a fattened bull calf in the house, {so she quickly slaughtered it} and took flour, kneaded [dough], and baked him [some] unleavened bread.

She brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they got up and went away that [very] night.