Old/New Testament
1 When the judges ruled over Israel, there was a man from Ramathaim-zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim. He was Elkanah, who descended from Jeroham, Elihu, Tohu, and Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives: Peninnah, who bore him sons and daughters, and Hannah, who remained childless.
At the end of the Book of Judges, the world has descended into violence and chaos—it is, as the book concludes, a time when “there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what seemed right to them” (Judges 21:25). And their selfish desires are often very wrong morally, socially, and personally. Israel is a dark place waiting for a light to enter, and as is usually the case in the story of the people of God, God has a plan.
3 Elkanah used to go up every year from his city to worship and offer sacrifices at the altar of the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, at Shiloh, where the priests of the Eternal were Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. 4 On the days he made a sacrifice, Elkanah would share a portion of his offering with his wife Peninnah and all her children, 5 but he offered a double portion of sacrificial meat for Hannah because he loved her even though the Eternal One had not given her children. 6 Peninnah used to infuriate Hannah until Hannah trembled with irritation because the Eternal had not given Hannah children. 7 This went on year after year; and every time Hannah went up to the house of the Eternal, Peninnah would infuriate her. So, as she often did, Hannah wept and refused to eat.
The story of Samuel begins quietly, not with a great warrior coming onto the scene, but with the faithful prayer of a woman who wants to be a mother. The underlying message of the books of Samuel is, as in many other places in the Bible, that faith and trust in God are more important than any trust we place in human beings—even powerful human beings. Hannah’s prayers for a child, her absolute faith in God’s plan, and her willingness to be a part of it however she can, resonate as the kings and warriors begin to enter the stage. Without her faith, there can be no story.
Elkanah (seeing Hannah’s despair): 8 Why are you crying and not eating? Why are you so sad, Hannah? Don’t I love you more than any 10 sons could?
9-10 One day after they ate and drank at Shiloh, Hannah got up and presented herself before the Lord. It so happened that the priest Eli was sitting in a place of honor beside the doorpost of the Eternal’s congregation tent as Hannah entered. She was heartbroken, and she began to pray to the Eternal One, weeping uncontrollably as she did.
Hannah: 11 Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, if only You will look down at the misery of Your servant and remember me—oh, don’t forget me!—and give Your servant a son, then I promise I will devote the boy to Your service as a Nazirite all the days of his life. [He will never touch wine or other strong drink,][a] and no razor will ever cut his hair.
12 As she prayed silently before the Eternal One, the priest Eli watched her mouth: 13 Hannah’s lips were moving, but since she was praying silently, he could not hear her words. So Eli thought she was drunk.
Eli: 14 How long are you going to continue drinking, making a spectacle of yourself? Stop drinking wine, and sober up!
Hannah: 15 My lord, I am not drunk on wine or any strong drink; I am just a woman with a wounded spirit. I have been pouring out the pain in my soul before the Eternal One. 16 Please don’t consider your servant some worthless woman just because I have been speaking for so long out of worry and exasperation.
Eli: 17 Go, don’t worry about this anymore, and may the True God of Israel fulfill the petition you have made to Him.
Hannah: 18 May your servant be favored in your sight.
Then Hannah rose and went back to where she was staying. The sadness lifted from her, so she was able to eat.
19 The next morning, they rose early to worship the Eternal One. Then they went back to their home at Ramah, and Elkanah slept with Hannah his wife. The Eternal remembered her petition; 20 and in the new year, Hannah became pregnant. When her son was born, she named him Samuel, which means “His name is El (God),” because she said,
Hannah: I asked the Eternal One for him.
21 The next year, Elkanah and all his family went up to Shiloh to make their sacrifices to the Eternal and to fulfill his vow. 22 But Hannah remained behind.
Hannah (to Elkanah): When the child can eat solid food, I will bring him so that he can appear in the presence of the Eternal One and remain there continually.
Elkanah (to Hannah): 23 Do whatever you think best. If you want to wait until Samuel is weaned, do that. Since the Eternal is faithful, surely He will keep His word.
So Hannah stayed at home and nursed her son until he was weaned. 24 When that day came, she gathered a three-year-old bull,[b] over half a bushel of flour, and a skin of wine; and she took him to the house of the Eternal One at Shiloh. Samuel was just a lad. 25 They slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to the priest Eli.
Hannah (to Eli): 26 My lord, I swear I am the woman who was praying to the Eternal One in front of you. 27 It was this child I prayed for, and the Eternal has indeed granted me the petition I made. 28 So, as I vowed, I will lend him back to the Eternal. For as long as he lives, let him serve our Eternal One.
And she left Samuel there with Eli to serve the Eternal One.
2 Then Hannah prayed out of her deepest feelings.
Hannah: My heart rejoices in the Eternal One;
my strength grows strong in the Eternal.
My mouth can mock my enemies
because I celebrate how You have saved me!
2 No one is holy like the Eternal One—
no, no one but You;
and there is no rock as solid as our True God.
3 Stop talking so proudly,
and don’t let such arrogance flow from your lips,
For the Eternal One is a True God who knows,
and He weighs the actions He sees.
4 The bows of the mighty crack in two,
but the feeble are given new strength.
5 Those who were full have had to work hard so they can eat,
but those who were starving have become fat with rich food.
The one who was infertile has borne seven children,
while the one who bore many sits alone in sadness.
6 The Eternal One kills and brings to life;
He sends down to the grave and raises up new life.
7 The Eternal One makes both poor and rich;
some He humbles, and others He honors.
8 He lifts the poor up out of the dust,
the needy from the trash heap.
He raises them to sit with princes
and seats them on a glorious throne.
For the pillars of the earth are the Eternal One’s,
and on them, He has set the world.
9 He will watch over the footsteps of the faithful,
but the wicked will be made silent in the darkness,
for one does not win by strength alone.
10 The Eternal One will shatter His foes;
from His throne in heaven, He will thunder with rage.
The Eternal One will be judge to the ends of the earth;
He gives strength to His king,
And power to the one He chooses to rule.
11 So Elkanah and his family returned home to Ramah, while Samuel remained behind with Eli the priest to minister before the Eternal One.
12 Although Eli’s sons served as priests, they were really worthless men with no understanding of the Eternal 13-14 or of their priestly duties. When someone presented meat as a ritual offering to the Lord, the priest would send a servant with a three-pronged fork to probe around in the pot or kettle as the sacrifice boiled; and whatever he brought up with the fork, the priest would keep as his own. They did this at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came to sacrifice.
15 The priest’s servant would even tell those who were going to burn fat as a sacrifice,
Servant: Give the priest meat to roast. He won’t accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.
16 And if the worshiper protested, saying the priest could take whatever he wanted after the fat was burned, the servant would say,
Servant: Give it to me now; if necessary, it will be taken from you by force.
17 Because they despised the Eternal’s ritual offerings, the Eternal One judged that the sons of Eli had sinned greatly.
18 Now Samuel was then a small boy, working in the house of the Eternal One. He wore a linen vest, one of the priestly garments. 19 His mother used to make him a new robe every year, and she would take it up to him when she and her husband came to perform the yearly sacrifice. 20 On that joyful occasion, Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah.
Eli: May the Eternal One bless you with more children by this woman for the great gift she made to the Eternal.
Then they would return home.
21 The Eternal One showed his favor toward Hannah again, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters, and her son Samuel grew up in the presence of the Eternal One.
22 Eli, who had grown old and tired, heard what his sons were doing to all those Israelites who came to Shiloh to perform their sacrifices. He heard that they were even having sexual relations with the women who worked at the door of the meeting tent.
Eli (to his sons): 23 Why do you do such horrible things? The people have told me about all the evil you have done. 24 No, my sons, I do not hear good words spoken about you by the people of the Eternal. 25 If one person offends another, [at least someone can plead with the True God on the sinner’s behalf].[c] But if someone offends the Eternal One, then who will plead for that person?
But Eli’s sons did not listen to his words, for the Eternal One had already decided to destroy them.
26 The boy Samuel grew tall, wise in the ways of the Lord, and in favor with God and the people he served.
27 A man sent by the True God came to Eli.
Man: This is the message of the Eternal One: “I made Myself known to your family when Israel was enslaved under Pharaoh in Egypt. 28 I chose your ancestor Aaron from among all the tribes of Israel to be My priest: to serve at the altar, to offer incense, and to wear the priestly vest in My presence. And I repaid your family by presenting them with all the offerings made to Me by fire from all the people of Israel. 29 Why do you look with such greedy eyes on all the sacrifices and offerings I have directed the people to bring to My house? Why do you honor your sons more than you honor Me by feasting on the choicest parts of every single offering made by My people Israel?”
30 Therefore the Eternal God of Israel declares: “I promised that your family would go in and out of My presence forever. But now I surely declare, those who honor Me I will honor, but people who choose to despise Me, I, in turn, will consider contemptible: those who hate Me will not matter to Me. 31 Look, the time approaches when I will cut away your strength and the strength of your family, so that none of you will live to old age. 32 Then, in agony, you will see all the good things I do for Israel; there will be great distress, and no one in your family will live to old age ever again.
33 “Any of your family not cut off will grieve continually and will cry their eyes out. All the other members of your household will die violently in the prime of life. 34 The fate of your sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign of the future. Both of them will die on the very same day. 35 I will raise up a faithful priest who will do what I desire and purpose in My heart and mind. I will build him a secure house, and he will go in and out before My anointed one continually. 36 Those of your family who survive will come to him and bow down for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and they will beg him, ‘Please make me a priest so at least I can have a morsel of bread.’”
3 The boy Samuel continued to serve the Eternal One under the guidance of Eli. In those days, messages from the Eternal were rare, and sacred dreams or visions were given to very few.
2 Eli, who was very old, had become almost blind. He was lying in his room; 3 it was late at night but before dawn as the lamp of God still burned. Samuel was resting in the house of the Eternal One, where the covenant chest of the True God was located, and he heard a voice.
Eternal One: 4 Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Here I am! 5 (running to Eli) I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down.
So Samuel went back to bed. 6 But the Eternal called him again.
Eternal One: Samuel!
Samuel (running to Eli): I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: No, I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down. I need my rest.
7 Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Eternal One, for the word of the Eternal had not been revealed to Samuel yet. So Samuel went back again to his bed. 8 And the Eternal One called him a third time.
Samuel (running to Eli): I know you called me; I am here!
Eli (realizing the Lord was calling Samuel): 9 Go back and lie down, my son. If the voice calls you again, I want you to say, “Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.”
So Samuel went to his bed in his place and listened. 10 Then the Eternal One came into his presence as before.
Eternal One: Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.
Eternal One: 11 Pay attention! I am about to do something so amazing in Israel that it will sting the ears of everyone who hears it. 12 The day is coming when I will carry out the vow I made to Eli about his family, every word of it. 13 I have told him that I will punish his house forever for the sins of his sons, bringing a curse on themselves that he knew about but did nothing to stop. 14 So I vow that the sins of the house of Eli may never be atoned for by sacrifice or by offering.
15 After hearing this message, Samuel lay there until morning and then opened the doors of the Eternal One’s house, but he was afraid to tell Eli what God had said to him.
Eli: 16 Samuel, my son.
Samuel: Here I am.
Eli: 17 What was it that He told you? Tell me everything. May the True God carry out His vengeance on you and worse, if you hold anything back from me that He said to you.
18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing.
Eli: This message is truly from the Eternal One. Let Him do what seems good to Him.
When Eli hears God’s message to Samuel, a message that surely breaks his heart, Eli knows his sons have dishonored God and deserve punishment. His willingness to honor God’s message is truly a measure of his faith. This is one of many places in the books of Samuel where we can recognize the justice of God’s plan and still share some sorrow with those who will suffer because of it.
19 As Samuel grew, the Eternal One guided him and none of His words were lost on Samuel. 20 And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, learned that Samuel was a prophet of the Eternal One and that his words could be trusted.
21 From time to time, the Eternal continued to appear at Shiloh, where He had spoken to Samuel.
26 When they get to the other side of the lake, in the Gerasene country opposite Galilee, 27 a man from the city is waiting for Jesus when He steps out of the boat. The man is full of demonic spirits. He’s been running around for a long time stark naked, and he’s homeless, sleeping among the dead in a cemetery. 28-29 This man has on many occasions been tied up and chained and kept under guard, but each time he has broken free and the demonic power has driven him back into remote places away from human contact. Jesus commands the demonic force to leave him. The man looks at Jesus and starts screaming. He falls down in front of Jesus.
Possessed Man (shouting): Don’t torment me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! Why are You here?
Jesus (calmly and simply): 30 What’s your name?
Possessed Man: Battalion.
He says this because an army of demons is inside of him. 31 The demons start begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. 32 They plead instead to enter into a herd of pigs feeding on a steep hillside near the shore. Jesus gives them permission to do so. 33 Suddenly the man is liberated from the demons, but the pigs—they stampede, squealing down the hill and into the lake where they drown themselves.
34 The pig owners see all this. They run back to their town and tell everyone in the region about it. 35 Soon a crowd rushes from the town to see what’s going on out by the lake. There they find Jesus seated to teach with the newly liberated man sitting at His feet learning in the posture of a disciple. This former madman is now properly dressed and completely sane. This frightens the people. 36 The pig owners tell them the whole story—the healing, the pigs’ mass suicide, everything.
37 The people are scared to death, and they don’t want this scary abnormality happening in their territory. They ask Jesus to leave immediately. Jesus doesn’t argue. He prepares to leave, 38 but before they embark, the newly liberated man begs to come along and join the band of disciples.
Jesus: 39 No. Go home. Tell your people this amazing story about how much God has done for you.
The man does so. In fact, he tells everyone in the whole city how much Jesus did for him that day on the shore.
40 When Jesus and His disciples crossed the lake, another crowd was waiting to welcome Him. 41 A man made his way through the crowd. His name was Jairus, and he was a synagogue official. Like the man on the other side of the lake, this dignified man also fell at Jesus’ feet, begging Jesus to visit his home 42 where his only daughter, a girl of 12, lay dying. Jesus set out with Jairus. The crowd came along, too, pressing hard against Him.
43 In the crowd was a woman. She had suffered from an incurable menstrual disorder for 12 years [and had spent her livelihood on doctors with no effect].[a] It had kept her miserable and ritually unclean, unable to participate fully in Jewish life. 44 She followed Jesus, until she could reach Him. She touched the fringe of the robe Jesus wore, and at that moment the bleeding stopped.
Jesus (stopping and looking about): 45 Who touched Me?
Some in the Crowd (everyone speaking at once): Not me.
Another in the Crowd: It wasn’t me either.
Peter [and those with him][b] (intervening): Master, what kind of question is that, with this huge crowd all around You and many people touching You on all sides?
Jesus: 46 I felt something. I felt power going out from Me. I know that somebody touched Me.
47 The woman now realized her secret was going to come out sooner or later, so she stepped out of the crowd, shaking with fear, and she fell down in front of Jesus. Then she told her story in front of everyone—why she touched Him, what happened as a result.
Jesus: 48 Your faith has made you well again, daughter. Go in peace.
49 Right at that instant, one of Jairus’s household servants arrived.
Servant: Sir, your daughter is dead. It’s no use bothering the Teacher with this anymore.
Jesus (interrupting Jairus before he could speak): 50 Don’t be afraid. Just believe. She’ll be well again.
51-52 As they approached the house, the whole neighborhood was full of the sound of mourning—weeping, wailing, loud crying. Jesus told everyone to stay outside—everyone except Peter, John, James, and, of course, the girl’s father and mother.
Jesus (to the mourners): Please stop weeping. The girl isn’t dead. She’s only asleep.
53 They knew for certain that she was dead, so their bitter tears now mixed with mocking laughter.
54 Meanwhile, inside, Jesus took the girl’s hand.
Jesus: Child, get up!
55 She started breathing again, and she sat right up.
Jesus: Get her something to eat.
56 Her parents were amazed, but Jesus sternly told them to keep what had happened a secret.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.