Study Desk

And she made a vow, pleading, "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 come over his head."

"No, my lord," Hannah replied. "I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.

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 always."

The bows of the warriors are broken, but the feeble are equipped with strength.

The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.

He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.

Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy began ministering to the LORD before Eli the priest.

Even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast, because he will not accept from you boiled meat, but only raw."

If a man sins against another man, God can intercede for him, but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to their father, since the LORD intended to put them to death.

Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

but Eli called to him and said, "Samuel, my son." "Here I am," answered Samuel.

As she was dying, the women attending to her said, "Do not despair, for you have given birth to a son!" But she did not respond or pay any heed.

But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.

But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD's hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, "They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!"

They replied, "If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you."

Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance."

But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

As the Philistines drew near to fight against Israel, Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering. But that day the LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into such confusion that they fled before Israel.