The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday May 7, 2019 (NIV)

Hannah Gives Birth to Samuel

1 There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives; the name of the first was Hannah and the name of the second was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.

³ Year after year this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests. ⁴ Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. ⁵ But he would give a double portion to Hannah, because he especially loved her. Now the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ⁶ Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, for the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ⁷ Peninnah would behave this way year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the Lord’s house, Peninnah would upset her so that she would weep and refuse to eat. ⁸ Finally her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and not eat? Why are you so sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹ On one occasion in Shiloh, after they had finished eating and drinking, Hannah got up. (Now at the time Eli the priest was sitting in his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple.) ¹⁰ She was very upset as she prayed to the Lord, and she was weeping uncontrollably. ¹¹ She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the suffering of your female servant, remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.”

¹² As she continued praying to the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth. ¹³ Now Hannah was speaking from her heart. Although her lips were moving, her voice was inaudible. Eli therefore thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ So he said to her, “How often do you intend to get drunk? Put away your wine!”

¹⁵ But Hannah replied, “That’s not the way it is, my lord! I am under a great deal of stress. I have drunk neither wine nor beer. Rather, I have poured out my soul to the Lord. ¹⁶ Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”

¹⁷ Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request that you have asked of him.” ¹⁸ She said, “May I, your servant, find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and got something to eat. Her face no longer looked sad.

¹⁹ They got up early the next morning and after worshiping the Lord, they returned to their home at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him.

Hannah Dedicates Samuel to the Lord

²¹ This man Elkanah went up with all his family to make the yearly sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow, ²² but Hannah did not go up with them. Instead she told her husband, “Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the Lord, and he will remain there from then on.”

²³ So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.”

So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. ²⁴ Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah of flour, and a container of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ²⁵ Once the bull had been slaughtered, they brought the boy to Eli. ²⁶ She said, “Just as surely as you are alive, my lord, I am the woman who previously stood here with you in order to pray to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed for this boy, and the Lord has given me the request that I asked of him. ²⁸ Now I dedicate him to the Lord. From this time on he is dedicated to the Lord.” Then they worshiped the Lord there.

Hannah Exalts the Lord in Prayer

2 Hannah prayed,

¹¹ Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah. But the boy was serving the Lord under the supervision of Eli the priest.

Eli’s Sons Misuse Their Sacred Office

¹² The sons of Eli were wicked men. They did not recognize the Lord’s authority. ¹³ Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ He would jab it into the basin, kettle, cauldron, or pot, and everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they used to do to all the Israelites when they came there to Shiloh.

¹⁵ Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s attendant would come and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, “Hand over some meat for the priest to roast! He won’t take boiled meat from you, but only raw.” ¹⁶ If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

¹⁷ The sin of these young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

¹⁸ Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod. ¹⁹ His mother used to make him a small robe and bring it up to him at regular intervals when she would go up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice. ²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, “May the Lord raise up for you descendants from this woman to replace the one that she dedicated to the Lord.” Then they would go to their home. ²¹ So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary.

Healing a Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda

5 After this there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways. ³ A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways. ⁵ Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.)

¹⁰ So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped out, since there was a crowd in that place.

¹⁴ After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

Responding to Jewish Leaders

¹⁶ Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. ¹⁷ So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ²² Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.