A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
1 Samuel 1
1 Samuel 1 is the opening chapter of the ninth book of the Bible. The 28-verse chapter tells the story of Hannah, a childless woman who prays for a son and promises to dedicate him to God's service. Her son becomes Samuel, the prophet who will anoint Israel's first two kings.
The chapter opens at the tabernacle in Shiloh during the period of the judges. A man named Elkanah has two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah has children; Hannah does not. Each year Elkanah goes to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice, and Peninnah uses these family trips to mock Hannah for her childlessness.
In her distress, Hannah goes to the tabernacle and prays silently, weeping. She vows that if God gives her a son, she will dedicate him to lifelong service at the tabernacle. The high priest Eli sees her praying. Her lips move but no sound comes out, and he wrongly accuses her of being drunk. Hannah explains; Eli blesses her and sends her home.
Hannah conceives and bears a son. She names him Samuel and says she has asked the Lord for him. When Samuel is weaned, probably around age three, Hannah keeps her vow. She brings him to the tabernacle with a sacrifice, presents him to Eli, and leaves him there to serve God for the rest of his life. The chapter closes with Hannah's prayer of dedication.
Verse 1. Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
Verse 2. He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
Verse 3. Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD.
Verse 4. And whenever the day came for Elkanah to present his sacrifice, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.
Verse 5. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb.
Verse 6. Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.
Verse 7. And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.
Verse 8. “Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
Verse 9. So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
Verse 10. In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.
Verse 11. And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.”
Verse 12. As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.
Verse 13. Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk
Verse 14. and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”
Verse 15. “No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.
Verse 16. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman, for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”
Verse 17. “Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”
Verse 18. “May your maidservant find favor with you,” said Hannah. Then she went on her way, and she began to eat, and her face was no longer downcast.
Verse 19. The next morning they got up early to bow in worship before the LORD, and then they returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.
Verse 20. So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the LORD.”
Verse 21. Then Elkanah and all his house went up to make the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,
Verse 22. but Hannah did not go. “After the boy is weaned,” she said to her husband, “I will take him to appear before the LORD and to stay there permanently.”
Verse 23. “Do what you think is best,” her husband Elkanah replied, “and stay here until you have weaned him. Only may the LORD confirm His word.” So Hannah stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
Verse 24. Once she had weaned him, Hannah took the boy with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. Though the boy was still young, she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.
Verse 25. And when they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli.
Verse 26. “Please, my lord,” said Hannah, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.
Verse 27. I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him,
Verse 28. I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.
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