The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NET. Switch to the NET to read along with the audio.
1 This is the story of Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim who lived in Ramathaim-zophim, in the hills of Ephraim.
His father’s name was Jeroham,
His grandfather was Elihu,
His great-grandfather was Tohu,
His great-great-grandfather was Zuph.
2 He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had some children, but Hannah didn’t.
3 Each year Elkanah and his families journeyed to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship the Lord of the heavens and to sacrifice to him. (The priests on duty at that time were the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas.) 4 On the day he presented his sacrifice, Elkanah would celebrate the happy occasion by giving presents to Peninnah and her children; 5 but although he loved Hannah very much, he could give her only one present, for the Lord had sealed her womb; so she had no children to give presents to. 6 Peninnah made matters worse by taunting Hannah because of her barrenness. 7 Every year it was the same—Peninnah scoffing and laughing at her as they went to Shiloh, making her cry so much she couldn’t eat.
8 “What’s the matter, Hannah?” Elkanah would exclaim. “Why aren’t you eating? Why make such a fuss over having no children? Isn’t having me better than having ten sons?”
9 One evening after supper, when they were at Shiloh, Hannah went over to the Tabernacle. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance. 10 She was in deep anguish and was crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.
11 And she made this vow: “O Lord of heaven, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he’ll be yours for his entire lifetime, and his hair shall never be cut.”[a]
12-13 Eli noticed her mouth moving as she was praying silently and, hearing no sound, thought she had been drinking.
14 “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your bottle.”
15-16 “Oh no, sir!” she replied, “I’m not drunk! But I am very sad and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don’t think that I am just some drunken bum!”
17 “In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the Lord of Israel grant you your petition, whatever it is!”
18 “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed, and went happily back, and began to take her meals again.
19-20 The entire family was up early the next morning and went to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah, and when Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her petition; in the process of time, a baby boy was born to her. She named him Samuel (meaning “asked of God”)[b] because, as she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”
21-22 The next year Elkanah and Peninnah and her children went on the annual trip to the Tabernacle without Hannah, for she told her husband, “Wait until the baby is weaned, and then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there.”
23 “Well, whatever you think best,” Elkanah agreed. “May the Lord’s will be done.”
So she stayed home until the baby was weaned. 24 Then, though he was still so small, they took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice, and a bushel of flour and some wine. 25 After the sacrifice they took the child to Eli.
26 “Sir, do you remember me?” Hannah asked him. “I am the woman who stood here that time praying to the Lord! 27 I asked him to give me this child, and he has given me my request; 28 and now I am giving him to the Lord for as long as he lives.” So she left him there at the Tabernacle for the Lord to use.
2 This was Hannah’s prayer:
“How I rejoice in the Lord!
How he has blessed me!
Now I have an answer for my enemies,
For the Lord has solved my problem.
How I rejoice!
2 No one is as holy as the Lord!
There is no other God,
Nor any Rock like our God.
3 Quit acting so proud and arrogant!
The Lord knows what you have done,
And he will judge your deeds.
4 Those who were mighty are mighty no more!
Those who were weak are now strong.
5 Those who were well are now starving;
Those who were starving are fed.
The barren woman now has seven children;
She with many children has no more!
6 The Lord kills,
The Lord gives life.
7 Some he causes to be poor
And others to be rich.
He cuts one down
And lifts another up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust—
Yes, from a pile of ashes—
And treats them as princes
Sitting in the seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s
And he has set the world in order.
9 He will protect his godly ones,
But the wicked shall be silenced in darkness.
No one shall succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord shall be broken;
He thunders against them from heaven.
He judges throughout the earth.
He gives mighty strength to his king,
And gives great glory to his anointed one.”
11 So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord. 13-14 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. 15 Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.
16 If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,[c]” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”
17 So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.
18 Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.[d] 19 Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice. 20 Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord. 21 And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.
5 Afterwards Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish religious holidays. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was Bethesda Pool, with five covered platforms or porches surrounding it. 3 Crowds of sick folks—lame, blind, or with paralyzed limbs—lay on the platforms (waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and disturbed the water, and the first person to step down into it afterwards was healed).[a]
5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!
But it was on the Sabbath when this miracle was done. 10 So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”
11 “The man who healed me told me to,” was his reply.
12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
13 The man didn’t know, and Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; don’t sin as you did before,[b] or something even worse may happen to you.”
15 Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 So they began harassing Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.
17 But Jesus replied, “My Father constantly does good, and I’m following his example.”[c]
18 Then the Jewish leaders were all the more eager to kill him because in addition to disobeying their Sabbath laws, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus replied, “The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, and in the same way. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and tells him everything he is doing; and the Son will do far more awesome miracles than this man’s healing. 21 He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does. 22 And the Father leaves all judgment of sin to his Son, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor God’s Son, whom he sent to you, then you are certainly not honoring the Father.
37 and brought his people safely out from Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; there were no sick and feeble folk among them then. 38 Egypt was glad when they were gone, for the dread of them was great.
39 He spread out a cloud above them to shield them from the burning sun and gave them a pillar of flame at night to give them light. 40 They asked for meat, and he sent them quail and gave them manna—bread from heaven. 41 He opened up a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry and barren land; 42 for he remembered his sacred promises to Abraham his servant.
43 So he brought his chosen ones singing into the Promised Land. 44 He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, complete with their growing crops; they ate what others planted. 45 This was done to make them faithful and obedient to his laws. Hallelujah!
28 A growing population is a king’s glory; a dwindling nation is his doom.
29 A wise man controls his temper. He knows that anger causes mistakes.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.