1. There was a man from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
2. He had two wives, the first named Hannah and the second Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.
3. This man would go up from his town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were the Lord’s priests.
4. Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters.
5. But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving.
6. Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving.