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The Last Judges: Eli and Samuel[a]

Chapter 1[b]

Elkanah’s Pilgrimage to Shiloh. There was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives. The name of one of them was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not have any children. This man would travel from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts[c] in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests there.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 1:1 It is not by chance that Samuel gives his name to the entire book (with its two parts), for he receives a very special call and is chosen to be a prophet and leader in Israel. His main task will be to help the chosen people make the transition from a confederacy to a monarchy without losing, in the process, their direct and exclusive attachment to Yahweh, who will always be their sole Lord. The initial picture of Samuel occupies the first seven chapters.
  2. 1 Samuel 1:1 As in the case of Isaac, Samson, and John the Baptist, a child given to a barren woman has a special destiny.
  3. 1 Samuel 1:3 Lord of hosts: Hebrew, Jahve seba’ot. The meaning is that God is the God of all the creatures, heavenly and earthly, in the universe, and that these are regarded as a single well-ordered multitude of beings.