1 Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

3 Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord. 4And whenever the day came for Elkanah to present his sacrifice, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved her even though the Lord had closed her womb.

6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her. 7And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.

8“Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why is your heart so grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

9 So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.

10 In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears. 11And she made a vow, saying, “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 touch his head.”

12 As Hannah kept on praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. 13Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard.

So Eli thought she was drunk 14and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”

15“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. 16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman, for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”

17“Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”

18“May your maidservant find favor with you,” said Hannah. Then she went on her way, and she began to eat, and her face was no longer downcast.

19 The next morning they got up early to bow in worship before the Lord, and then they returned home to Ramah.

And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,saying, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.”

21 Then Elkanah and all his house went up to make the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22but 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 permanently.”

23“Do what you think is best,” her husband Elkanah replied, “and stay here until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord confirm His word.”

So Hannah stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

24 Once she had weaned him, Hannah took the boy with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. Though the boy was still young, she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25And when they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli.

26“Please, my lord,” said Hannah, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him, 28I now dedicate the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord.”

So they worshiped the Lord there.

1 At that time Hannah prayed:

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

12 Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord 13or for the custom of the priests with the people.

When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling 14and plunge it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or cooking pot. And the priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.

15 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 boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

16 And if any man said to him, “The fat must be burned first; then you may take whatever you want,” the servant would reply, “No, you must give it to me right now. If you refuse, I will take it by force!”

17 Thus the sin of these young men was severe in the sight of the Lord, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.

18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord — a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19Each year his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the Lord.” Then they would go home.

21 So the Lord attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

1 Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. 3On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

5 One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.”

8 Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

9 Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk.

Now this happened on the Sabbath day, 10so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.”

11 But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12“Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked.

13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there.

14 Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

15 And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him. 17But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

18 Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

19 So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

22 Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, 23so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.