1 Samuel 2

Hannah sings to the LORD

¹Then Hannah prayed, and she said: \q “My heart is glad in the LORD; \q in the LORD my horn is raised high. \q I boast loudly over my enemies, \q because I rejoice in your salvation. ²No one is holy like the LORD; \q indeed, there is none but you, \q and no rock is like our God. ³Do not keep talking so proudly, \q or let arrogant words leave your lips, \q for the LORD is a God who knows all things, \q and by him every action is weighed.^{a 4}The bows of the mighty are broken, \q while those who stumbled are armed with strength. ⁵Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, \q but the hungry hunger no more. \q The childless woman gives birth to seven, \q but the mother of many sons pines away.^{b 6}The LORD brings death and gives life; \q he sends down to Sheol and brings up again. ⁷The LORD makes some poor and others rich; \q he humbles, and he also exalts. ⁸He lifts the poor up out of the dust \q and raises those in need from the ash heap, \q to seat them with nobles \q and give them a throne of honor as their own. \q For the pillars of the earth belong to the LORD; \q on them he has set the world. ⁹He guards the steps of his faithful ones, \q but the wicked are silenced in darkness, \q for no one wins by strength. ¹⁰Those who oppose the LORD will be shattered; \q he will thunder against them from heaven. \q The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; \q he will grant strength to his king \q and raise high the horn of his anointed.”^cd

Eli’s sons treat the offerings with contempt

¹¹Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy stayed and served the LORD under Eli the priest. ¹²Now Eli’s sons were worthless men; they did not know the LORD. ¹³Now this was the priests’ practice with the people: whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling, carrying a three-pronged fork, ¹⁴and he would plunge it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up, the priest took for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. ¹⁵Worse still, before the fat had even been turned into smoke, the priest’s servant would come and tell the man offering the sacrifice, “Hand over some meat for the priest to roast. He will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.” ¹⁶If the man answered, “Let the fat be turned into smoke first, and then take whatever you like,” the servant would say, “No, hand it over now. If you do not, I will take it by force.” ¹⁷So the sin of these young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for they treated the LORD’s offering with contempt.^{e 18}Samuel, meanwhile, was serving before the LORD, a boy wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹Each year his mother made him a small robe and brought it to him when she went up with her husband for the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she asked for and gave to the LORD.” Then they would go home.^{f 21}And the LORD came to Hannah’s aid: she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And all the while the boy Samuel was growing up in the presence of the LORD.

Eli warns his sons

²²Eli was now very old. He kept hearing of all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with the women serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting.^{g 23}He said to them, “Why are you doing these things? I keep hearing from all the people about the evil you are doing. ²⁴No, my sons! The report I hear spreading among the LORD’s people is not good.^{h 25}If one person sins against another, God can settle the matter; but if someone sins against the LORD, who can plead for that person?” But they would not listen to their father, because the LORD had decided to put them to death.^{i 26}Meanwhile the boy Samuel went on growing up, and both the LORD and the people were pleased with him.

A man of God speaks against Eli’s house

²⁷A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “The LORD says this: ‘Did I not plainly reveal myself to your ancestor’s family when they were in Egypt, subject to Pharaoh’s house? ²⁸Out of all the tribes of Israel, did I not choose him as my priest, to go up to my altar, to offer incense, and to wear an ephod before me? And I gave your ancestor’s family all the food offerings of the Israelites. ²⁹Why do you kick at my sacrifices and offerings, which I commanded for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me, fattening yourselves on the best parts of every offering made by Israel, my people?^{j 30}Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: I did promise that your family and your ancestor’s family would walk before me forever. But now the LORD declares: That will never be! For I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be treated as nothing. ³¹The time is coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your ancestor’s family, so that no one in your family will live to old age. ³²In my dwelling you will see distress, even while Israel is given every good thing, and no one in your family will ever live to old age.^{k 33}Yet one of your descendants I will not cut off from serving at my altar, so that your eyes will fail with weeping and your heart will grieve. All the rest of your descendants will die in the prime of life.^{l 34}What happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be the sign to you: both of them will die on the same day. ³⁵I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do what is in my heart and mind. I will build him a lasting house, and he will walk before my anointed for all time.^{m 36}Then everyone left in your family will come and bow down to him for a little silver and a loaf of bread, and say, “Please put me in one of the priestly posts so that I can have a scrap of bread to eat.”’”