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Elkanah and his family go to Shiloh
1 There was a man whose name was Elkanah. He lived in a town called Ramah.[a] This town was in the hill country where Ephraim's tribe lived. Elkanah was the son of Jeroham. Jeroham was the son of Elihu. Elihu was the son of Tohu. Tohu was the son of Zuph. Zuph belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. 2 Elkanah had two wives. One wife was called Hannah and the other wife was called Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah did not have any children.
3 Every year, Elkanah left his home in Ramah to go to the town of Shiloh.[b] He went there to worship the Lord Almighty and to offer sacrifices to him.[c] Hophni and Phinehas served the Lord at Shiloh as his priests. Eli was their father.
4 Every year, when Elkanah offered his sacrifices to God, he gave some of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to her sons and daughters. 5 Because Elkanah loved Hannah very much, he always gave twice as much meat to her. But the Lord had not let Hannah give birth to any children.
6 Peninnah was not kind to Hannah and she made Hannah very upset. She did this because the Lord had not let Hannah give birth to any children. 7 This happened every year when they went to the Lord's house in Shiloh. Peninnah would cause Hannah to be upset. Then Hannah would weep. She would refuse to eat anything. 8 Hannah's husband, Elkanah, said to her, ‘Why should you weep and refuse to eat? Do not be so sad. I love you, and that is better than ten sons.’
Hannah and Eli
9 One day they had offered sacrifices at Shiloh. They had finished eating and drinking. Hannah stood up to pray to God. Eli the priest was sitting on his chair beside the door of the Lord's temple.[d] 10 Hannah was very upset as she prayed to the Lord. She could not stop weeping. 11 She made a promise to God. She prayed, ‘Lord Almighty, you can see how sad I am. Please be kind to me, your servant. Remember me and do not forget me. Please give a son to me, your servant. If you do that, I will give him to serve you for all of his life. Nobody will ever cut his hair.’[e]
12 Hannah continued to pray to the Lord. Eli watched her mouth while it moved. 13 Hannah was praying quietly inside herself. Her lips moved but Eli could not hear her voice. So he thought that she was drunk. 14 He said to her, ‘Are you always drunk like that? Throw away your wine.’
15 Hannah replied, ‘No, sir, I have not drunk any wine or strong drink. I have much trouble deep inside myself. I have told the Lord about all my problems. 16 Please sir, do not think that I am a bad woman. I am praying like this because I am very sad and upset.’
17 Eli said to Hannah, ‘Go and let your mind have peace. I pray that Israel's God will give you what you have asked him for.’
18 Hannah said to him, ‘I will try to do what pleases you, sir.’
Then Hannah went away and she ate some food. Her face was not sad now.
19 Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and they worshipped the Lord. Then they went back to their home in Ramah. Elkanah had sex with his wife Hannah. The Lord remembered what she had asked him for. 20 Hannah became pregnant. Later, she gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samuel’. She said, ‘His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.’[f]
Hannah gives Samuel to serve God
21 Next year, Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord, as he had promised to do. His family went with him. 22 But Hannah did not go as well. She said to her husband, ‘I will not go until the boy is older. When he can eat proper food, I will take him to Shiloh to give him to the Lord. Then he will live there for all his life.’
23 Elkanah said to Hannah, ‘You must do what seems right to you. Stay here at home until the boy begins to eat proper food. May the Lord help you, as he has promised.’
So Hannah stayed at home with her son while he continued to drink milk from her breasts.
24 When Samuel started to eat proper food, Hannah took him to Shiloh. She took him to the Lord's house there when he was still a young boy. She took with her a bull that was three years old. She also took a big bag of flour and a leather bag full of wine. 25 They killed the bull for the sacrifice. Then Hannah took Samuel to Eli. 26 Hannah said to Eli, ‘Please believe me sir. I am the woman who stood here before. You saw me when I was praying to the Lord. 27 I prayed that the Lord would give me a son and he answered my prayer. 28 Now I will give this child to serve the Lord. He will be the Lord's servant for his whole life.’
Then Elkanah's family worshipped the Lord there.
Hannah praises the Lord
2 Hannah prayed and she said,
‘I am very happy when I think about what the Lord has done.
The Lord has made me very strong.
I can laugh at my enemies because you, Lord, have saved me.
That makes me very happy.
2 Nobody else is holy like the Lord.
There is no other God except you, our God.
You are the only Rock where we can be safe.[g]
3 Do not boast or speak proud words!
The Lord is a God who knows everything.
He judges everything that people do.
4 The weapons of brave soldiers may break.
But weak people who fall become strong again.
5 People who had plenty of food to eat have to work for it now.
But the people who were hungry have enough food now.
Women who could not have any children have now given birth to seven children.
But those who had many children are now alone.
6 The Lord gives both life and death.
He sends some people to their graves,
and he raises other people up.
7 The Lord makes some people poor
and he makes other people rich.
He causes some people to be important
and he puts other people low down.
8 He raises up weak people from the ground.
He lifts poor people up out of the dirt.
He makes them become friends of princes.
He puts them in places of honour.
The deep places of the earth belong to the Lord.
He built the world on a strong foundation.
9 He takes care of his faithful people.
But he puts wicked people in a dark place where they can do nothing.
It is not a person's own strength that makes him great.
10 The Lord will destroy his enemies.
He will shout against them from heaven like loud thunder.
The Lord will judge everyone on earth.
He will make his king strong.
He will give power to the king that he has chosen to rule.’
11 Then Elkanah went back to his home at Ramah with his family. But the young boy, Samuel, stayed in Shiloh. He served the Lord there, while Eli the priest took care of him.
Eli's wicked sons
12 Eli's sons were wicked men. They did not respect the Lord. 13 They did not do what the priests should do.
People brought sacrifices to offer to the Lord at Shiloh. When the meat was still boiling in a pot, a servant of the priest would come. He would bring a fork that had three points. 14 He then pushed the fork into the pot. The priest took for himself any meat that came out on the fork. The priests did that to all the Israelites when they came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. 15 Their servant would even come before the fat was removed from the meat to be burned as a sacrifice. He would say to the person who had brought the sacrifice, ‘Give me some of the meat for the priest to bake. He will not accept meat that has already boiled. He will only accept meat that is fresh.’
16 Sometimes, the person said, ‘We must burn the fat first. Then you can take any meat that you want.’ The servant would reply, ‘No. Give the meat to me now, or I will take it from you anyway.’
17 The Lord knew what Eli's sons were doing. They did not respect the sacrifices that people were offering to the Lord. The Lord saw that their sin was very bad.
Samuel at Shiloh
18 But Samuel served the Lord faithfully, as a young boy. He wore a linen ephod. 19 Every year, Samuel's mother made a little coat for him. She took it to him when she went to Shiloh. She and her husband went there every year to offer their sacrifice to God. 20 Each year, Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife. He said, ‘I pray that the Lord will give you more children to take the place of Samuel. Hannah has given her son to serve the Lord, so may she give birth to other children too.’
Then they would return to their own home. 21 The Lord blessed Hannah. She gave birth to three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel continued to grow as he served at the Lord's house in Shiloh.
Jesus makes a man able to walk
5 Some time after that, Jesus went to Jerusalem, because it was time for one of the Jewish festivals.
2 There is a pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. Its name in the Jewish language is Bethesda. Round the pool, there is a building with five places that have a roof over them. 3 A large number of sick people were lying in these places. Some of them were blind. Some of them could not walk properly. Some of them could not move their legs or their arms. [[a] They were waiting for when the water started to move. 4 An angel would go down into the pool at certain times and move the water about. When that happened, all the sick people tried to get into the pool. The first person who got into the water became well, whatever his illness was.]
5 One man who was lying there had been ill for 38 years. 6 Jesus saw this man. He knew that the man had been ill like this for a very long time. So he asked the man, ‘Do you want to get well?’ 7 The sick man said, ‘Sir, I do not have anyone who will help me. I need somebody who will put me into the pool. When the water starts to move, I try to get in. But someone else always gets in before me.’ 8 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ 9 The man became well immediately. He picked up his mat and he walked.
The day when this happened was a Jewish day of rest.[b] 10 Because of this, the Jewish leaders spoke to the man that Jesus had made well. They said to him, ‘You must not carry your mat on our day of rest. You are not obeying the rules.’ 11 The man replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.” ’ 12 So they asked him, ‘Who is this man? Who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?’ 13 The man did not know who had made him well. Jesus had gone away and joined the crowd that was there.
14 Some time after that, Jesus found the man in the temple. Jesus said to him, ‘See, you have become well. Stop doing wrong things. If you do not stop, something worse may happen to you.’ 15 Then the man went to the Jewish leaders. He told them that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 The Jewish leaders were angry because Jesus had made a man well on their day of rest.[c] As a result, they began to cause a lot of trouble for Jesus. 17 But Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is still working, and I too must work.’ 18 Because Jesus said this, the Jewish leaders became really angry. They wanted even more to kill him. Jesus not only worked on the day of rest. He was also calling God his own Father, so he was making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus answered them, ‘I tell you this: The Son can do nothing by himself. He sees what the Father does, and he can do only those same things. What the Father does, the Son also does. 20 The Father loves the Son. He shows the Son all the things that he himself does. And the Father will show the Son even greater things to do than these. Those greater things will surprise you even more than what you have already seen. 21 The Father raises dead people to make them alive again. In the same way, the Son gives life to whoever he chooses. 22 More than that, the Father does not judge anyone. He has given authority to the Son, so that the Son will judge all people. 23 Then all people will respect the Son as a great person. They will respect him in the way that they respect the Father. The Father sent the Son. So if people refuse to respect the Son, it shows that they do not respect the Father either.
37 So the Lord led his people out from Egypt.
They took with them valuable silver and gold things.
Nobody among the Israelite people was too weak to go.
38 The Egyptians were happy when they went,
because they were afraid of the Israelites.[a]
39 The Lord made a cloud to cover them
and a fire to give them light at night.
40 When they asked him for food,
he gave them quails to eat.
He fed them with bread from the sky.
41 He broke a rock,
so that water poured out from it.
It ran as a river through the dry places.
42 Yes, the Lord remembered the holy promise
that he had made to his servant, Abraham.
43 So he led his people out from Egypt,
and they were very happy!
They were the people that he had chosen for himself,
and they shouted with joy!
44 The Lord gave to them
the land of other nations.
They enjoyed the good things
that other people had worked to get.
45 Then God's people could obey his commands
and his laws.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
28 A king who rules many people will receive great honour.
But a ruler with only a few people will have nothing in the end.
29 A patient man shows that he understands what is right.
But someone who quickly becomes angry shows that he is foolish.
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