Manoah’s wife ¹  gave birth to a son and named him Samson. ²  The child grew and the Lord empowered ³  him.

The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”

“Let the day on which ¹  I was born ²  perish, and the night that said, ³  ‘A man ⁴  has been conceived!’ ⁵ 

The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; ¹  whoever fathers a wise child ²  will have joy in him.

Woe to you, O land, when your king is childish, ¹  and your princes feast in the morning!

As a mother consoles a child, ¹  so I will console you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

Immediately the father of the boy cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. ¹  His skin became as smooth as a young child’s ²  and he was healed.

The woman became pregnant ¹  and gave birth to a son. When ²  she saw that ³  he was a healthy ⁴  child, she hid him for three months.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get ¹  a nursing woman ²  for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse ³  the child for you?”

The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.”

for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ¹  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ² 

Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, ¹  is no different from a slave, though he is the owner ²  of everything.

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket ¹  for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. ² 

Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

Then I will reply, ¹  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north. I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth. Blind and lame people will come with them, so will pregnant women and women about to give birth. A vast throng of people will come back here.

The real mother ¹  spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. ²  She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” ³  But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!”

My child, if sinners ¹  try to entice ²  you, do not consent! ³ 

Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah. But the boy was serving the Lord under the supervision of ¹  Eli the priest.

Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod.