1 Samuel 2

¹ Then Hannah prayed and said, “My heart rejoices in the LORD; my strength is lifted high in the LORD. My mouth opens wide against my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.

² There is no one holy like the LORD, for there is no one besides you; there is no rock like our God.

³ Do not keep speaking so arrogantly, with such arrogance; let no insolence come from your mouths, for the LORD is a God who knows everything, and by him deeds are weighed.

⁴ The bows of warriors are shattered, but those who stumbled are girded with strength.

⁵ Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, while those who were hungry go hungry no longer. The barren woman gives birth to seven, while she who had many children wastes away.

⁶ The LORD puts to death and gives life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

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

⁸ He raises the poor from the dust; from the ash heap he lifts the needy, to seat them with nobles and give them a throne of glory as their inheritance. For the pillars of the earth belong to the LORD, and he set the world upon them.

⁹ He guards the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked fall silent in darkness, for no one prevails by strength.

¹⁰ The adversaries of the LORD will be shattered; against them he thunders from the heavens. The LORD judges the ends of the earth; he gives strength to his king and exalts the power of his anointed.”

¹¹ Elkanah went home to Ramah, and the boy served the LORD under Eli the priest.

¹² Eli’s sons were wicked men; they did not know the LORD.

¹³ This was the priests’ custom with the people: whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, while the meat was cooking, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand.

¹⁴ He would thrust it into the basin, the pot, the kettle, or the pan, and whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. That is what they did to all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.

¹⁵ Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man offering the sacrifice, “Give some meat for the priest to roast; he will not accept cooked meat from you, only raw.”

¹⁶ If the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, as they should, and then take whatever you want,” he would say, “No! Give it now, or I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ The young men’s sin was very great before the LORD, because the men treated the LORD’s offering with contempt.

¹⁸ Samuel served before the LORD; he was a boy wearing a linen ephod.

¹⁹ His mother made him a little robe and brought it to him every year when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you offspring from this woman in place of what was asked of the LORD.” Then they would return home.

²¹ The LORD looked after Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.

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

²³ He said to them, “Why are you doing these things? I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people.

²⁴ No, my sons! The report I hear is not good; you are leading the LORD’s people into sin.”

²⁵ “If one person sins against another, God will judge between them; but if someone sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?” Yet they would not listen to their father’s voice, because the LORD intended to put them to death.

²⁶ The boy Samuel continued to grow and was held in favor both with the LORD and with people.

²⁷ A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father’s family when they were in Egypt, in Pharaoh’s house?

²⁸ I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod in my presence. I gave your father’s family all the fire offerings of the Israelites.

²⁹ Why do you trample on my sacrifice and my offering, which I commanded in my dwelling place? Why do you honor your sons more than me, making yourselves fat on the best of every offering of Israel, my people?

³⁰ Therefore,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel, “I had clearly said that your family and your father’s family would walk before me forever. But now,” declares the LORD, “far be it from me! For I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be held in contempt.

³¹ The days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s family, so that no one in your family will live to old age.

³² You will see distress in my dwelling, despite all the good I do for Israel; and no one in your family will ever live to old age.

³³ I will not cut off every one of yours from my altar, so that your eyes may fail and your soul be grieved; but all the rest of your family will die in the prime of life.

³⁴ This will be the sign for you concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: both of them will die on the same day.

³⁵ I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will act according to my heart and my will. I will build him a lasting house, and he will walk before my anointed one always.

³⁶ Everyone left in your family will come and bow before him for a small coin of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, ‘Please appoint me to some priestly office, so I can have a piece of bread to eat.’”’

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