Elkanah and His Wives

¹Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophimin 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.

²He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

³Year 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.

⁴And 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.

⁵But to Hannah he would give a double portion,for he loved her even though the LORD had closed her womb.

⁶Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.

⁷And 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.

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?”

Hannah Prays for a Son

⁹So 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.

¹⁰In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

¹¹And 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.”

¹²As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.

¹³Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard.So Eli thought she was drunk

¹⁴and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”

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.

¹⁶Do 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.”

¹⁷“Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”

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.

The Birth of Samuel

¹⁹The 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.

²⁰So 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.”

²¹Then Elkanah and all his house went up to make the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,

²²but 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.”

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.

²⁴Once 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.

²⁵And when they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli.

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.

²⁷I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him,

²⁸I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.”So they worshipedthe LORD there.

Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion

¹Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.

²So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

³And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

⁵Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

⁶So the LORD God appointed a vine,and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.

¹¹So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

Hosea’s Wife and Children

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash,king of Israel.

²When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

³So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel,for soon I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

⁵And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah,for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.

⁷Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by the LORD their God.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son.

⁹And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi,for you are not My people, and I am not your God.

¹⁰Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

¹¹Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

I Will Watch My Ways

¹I said, “I will watch my waysso that I will not sin with my tongue;I will guard my mouth with a muzzleas long as the wicked are present.”

²I was speechless and still;I remained silent, even from speaking good,and my sorrow was stirred.

³My heart grew hot within me;as I mused, the fire burned.Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“Show me, O LORD, my endand the measure of my days.Let me know how fleeting my life is.

⁵You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths,and my lifetime as nothing before You.Truly each man at his bestexists as but a breath.Selah

⁶Surely every man goes about like a phantom;surely he bustles in vain;he heaps up richesnot knowing who will haul them away.

⁷And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?My hope is in You.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions;do not make me the reproach of fools.

⁹I have become mute;I do not open my mouthbecause of what You have done.

¹⁰Remove Your scourge from me;I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

¹¹You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity,consuming like a moth what he holds dear;surely each man is but a vapor.Selah

¹²Hear my prayer, O LORD,and give ear to my cry for help;do not be deaf to my weeping.For I am a foreigner dwelling with You,a stranger like all my fathers.

¹³Turn Your gaze away from me,that I may again be cheeredbefore I depart and am no more.”