Daily Bread

¹⁹ Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah.^(A) Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered^(B) her. ²⁰ So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son.^(C) She named^(D) him Samuel,^[a](E) saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

Hannah Dedicates Samuel

²¹ When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual^(F) sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow,^{(G) 22} Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present^(H) him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”^[b]

²³ “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good^(I) his^[c] word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned^(J) him.

²⁴ After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,^[d](K) an ephah^[e] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. ²⁵ When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, ²⁶ and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed^(L) for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life^(M) he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.