1 Samuel Chapter 2 — Hannah’s Song and Eli’s Sons

¹Hannah prayed, and said,

²There is no one as holy as the LORD,

³“Don’t keep talking so exceedingly proudly.

⁴“The bows of the mighty men are broken.

⁵Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread.

⁶“The LORD kills and makes alive.

⁷The LORD makes poor and makes rich.

⁸He raises up the poor out of the dust.

⁹He will keep the feet of his holy ones,

¹⁰Those who strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces.

¹¹Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child served the LORD before Eli the priest.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know the LORD.

¹³The custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the meat was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand;

¹⁴and he stabbed it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot. The priest took all that the fork brought up for himself. They did this to all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.

¹⁵Yes, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.”

¹⁶If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires;” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.”

¹⁷The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men despised the LORD’s offering.

¹⁸But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod.

¹⁹Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

²⁰Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May the LORD give you offspring†or, seed from this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD.” Then they went to their own home.

²¹The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.

²²Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they slept with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

²³He said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.

²⁴No, my sons; for it is not a good report that I hear! You make the LORD’s people disobey.

²⁵If one man sins against another, God will judge him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them.

²⁶The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD and also with men.

²⁷A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “The LORD says, ‘Did I reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house?

²⁸Didn’t I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? Didn’t I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?

²⁹Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?’

³⁰“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But now the LORD says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be cursed.

³¹Behold,‡“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection. the days come that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house.

³²You will see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I will give Israel. There shall not be an old man in your house forever.

³³The man of yours whom I don’t cut off from my altar will consume your eyes§or, blind your eyes with tears and grieve your heart. All the increase of your house will die in the flower of their age.

³⁴This will be the sign to you that will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die.

³⁵I will raise up a faithful priest for myself who will do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house. He will walk before my anointed forever.

³⁶It will happen that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.” ’ ”