1 Samuel 2

¹Then Hannah prayed and said, 'My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, for I rejoice in your salvation.

²There is none holy like the LORD, for there is none besides you; and there is no rock like our God.

³Do not speak so very arrogantly; let no arrogant word come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

⁴The bow of the mighty is broken, but those who stumbled are girded with strength.

⁵Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, while those who were hungry have ceased. Even the barren has given birth to seven, while she who had many sons has languished.

⁶The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

⁷The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he also exalts.

⁸He raises the poor from the dust, from the ash heap he lifts the needy, to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth belong to the LORD, and he has set the world upon them.

⁹He guards the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked are silenced in darkness; for not by his own strength does a man prevail.

¹⁰Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered; against them he will thunder in the heavens. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength to his king, and he will exalt the horn of his anointed.

¹¹Then Elkanah went to his home at Ramah. But the boy was ministering to the LORD before Eli the priest.

¹²And the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not acknowledge the LORD.

¹³Now the custom of the priests with the people was this: whenever any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.

¹⁴He would strike it into the basin, or the pot, or the caldron, or the cooking pot — all that the fork would bring up the priest would take for himself. Thus he did to all Israel who came there to Shiloh.

¹⁵Also, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, 'Give meat to roast for the priest, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.'

¹⁶But if the man said to him, 'Let them first burn the fat as is the custom today, and then take for yourself whatever you desire,' he would say, 'No! You must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.'

¹⁷Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.

¹⁸Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy girded with a linen ephod.

¹⁹His mother would make him a small robe and bring it up to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

²⁰And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, 'May the LORD grant you offspring from this woman in place of the one who was requested, who was dedicated to the LORD.' Then they would go to their own place.

²¹For the LORD attended to Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up with the LORD.

²²Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they were lying with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

²³And he said to them, 'Why do you act according to these things? For I am hearing evil reports about you from all these people.'

²⁴No, my sons, for the report that I am hearing is not good — it is spreading among the people of the LORD.

²⁵If a man sins against another man, God may arbitrate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.

²⁶Now the young man Samuel was growing up and finding favor both with the LORD and also with men.

²⁷And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, 'Thus says the LORD: Did I not plainly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, as slaves to the house of Pharaoh?

²⁸Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to bear the ephod before me? And I gave to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel.

²⁹Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering which I commanded in my dwelling place, and honor your sons above me by making yourselves fat from the firstfruits of all the offerings of my people Israel?

³⁰Therefore, declares the LORD, the God of Israel: I solemnly said that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever. But now, declares the LORD, far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

³¹Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.

³²You will see distress in my dwelling place, despite all the prosperity that he gives Israel, and there will never be an old man in your house forever.

³³Yet the one man of yours I will not cut off from my altar shall cause your eyes to fail and shall grieve your soul, and all the increase of your house shall die as men.

³⁴And this will be the sign for you that will come upon both your sons, upon Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both of them will die.

³⁵And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will act according to what is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build for him a sure dynasty, and he will walk before my anointed one all the days.

³⁶Then everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, 'Please attach me to one of the priestly offices, so that I may eat a morsel of bread.'