Well, not much done on The Dare so far, but here's my lame start:

I Samuel 1

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"There once was a man from Ramathaim-zophim,
	in the hill country of Ephraim..."

I Samuel doesn't quite start out as a limerick, but it begins "as a simple little story", which is nearly the same thing. Once a man had two wives, one barren and one with children. He went annually to worship and sacrifice at Shiloh. And this story isn't really about him, it's about his wife, Hannah, the barren one.

The two wives are rivals, and Hannah is mocked by Peninnah because YHWH has closed her womb. In antiquity, of course, childbearing was simply the course of things for married women, and those not bearing children often both felt shame and were mocked; it might appear that YHWH has some grudge against Hannah, intervening against the course of things (vv. 2, 5-7, 10). (For present-day readers, this seems odd, given the intricate knowledge of reproduction afforded us by sophisticated medical technique. Nonetheless, it is important to understand in chapter 1.) Her husband, nonetheless, keeps her, loves her, and gives her a double portion for the sacrifice (vv. 4-5, 8, 19b).

Hannah, however, trusts in the LORD, and infers that her barrenness is a natural fact, and not the LORD's hostility; therefore, "Hannah rose" (v.9). "In her wretchedness, she prayed to the LORD, weeping all the while" (v. 10). Her prayer asks for vindication (by giving her a son), and promises that the son will be dedicated to YHWH for his whole life (v. 11).

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See? Awfully recapp-y, and adds nothing. Think I'm just going to keep plowing forward, and come back and fix it later. Had a good lurch forward, but then the Linux machine (of all the machines...!) stopped responding to blinkin' anything, and by the time I forced it to poweroff and reboot, the momentum was wholly shot. Blast that ol' Devil. Still, press on...