Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in your home, and your children will be like young olive trees around your table.

A man who obeys the LORD will surely be blessed like this.

blessed them, and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.

Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: "This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir."

The LORD took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that."

And they gave Rebecca their blessing in these words: "May you, sister, become the mother of millions! May your descendants conquer the cities of their enemies!"

But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I can't take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children."

When Esau looked around and saw the women and the children, he asked, "Who are these people with you?" "These, sir, are the children whom God has been good enough to give me," Jacob answered.

He said, "God has made me forget all my sufferings and all my father's family"; so he named his first son Manasseh.

He also said, "God has given me children in the land of my trouble"; so he named his second son Ephraim.

He said to me, 'I will give you many children, so that your descendants will become many nations; I will give this land to your descendants as their possession forever.' "

"The LORD will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep.

Then I took Abraham, your ancestor, from the land across the Euphrates and led him through the whole land of Canaan. I gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac,

and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Edom as his possession, but your ancestor Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

The next morning Elkanah and his family got up early, and after worshiping the LORD, they went back home to Ramah. Elkanah had intercourse with his wife Hannah, and the LORD answered her prayer.

So it was that she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, and explained, "I asked the LORD for him."

I asked him for this child, and he gave me what I asked for.

Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, "May the LORD give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him." After that they would go back home.

The LORD did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD.

He gave me many sons, and out of them all he chose Solomon to rule over Israel, the LORD's kingdom.

Here I am with the children the LORD has given me. The LORD Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.