1. 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.
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 had no children.
3. Now this man used to go up from his town year by year to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of hosts in Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to Yahweh.
4. On the day Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.
5. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, because he loved Hannah, though Yahweh had closed her womb.
6. (Now her rival wife would provoke her severely in order to upset her because Yahweh had closed her womb.)
7. And so he used to do year after year; whenever she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her so that she would weep and would not eat.
8. So Elkanah her husband would say to her: “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat? And why are you heartsick? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
9. Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking at Shiloh. (Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh.)
10. She was deeply troubled, so she prayed to Yahweh and wept bitterly.
11. She made a vow and said: “O Yahweh of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the misery of your female servant, and will remember me, and not forget your female servant, and will give to your female servant a male child then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor will never pass over his head.”
12. While she continued to pray before Yahweh, Eli was observing her mouth.