שמואל א ב

And Hannah prayed:
My heart exults in GOD;
I have triumphed through GOD.
I gloat over my enemies;
I rejoice in Your deliverance.

There is no holy one like GOD,
Truly, there is none beside You;
There is no rock like our God.

Talk no more with lofty pride,
Let no arrogance cross your lips!
For the ETERNAL is an all-knowing God,
By whom actions are measured.

The bows of the mighty are broken,
And the faltering are girded with strength.

The sated are hired out for bread;
The starving hunger no more.
While the infertile woman bears seven,
The mother of many is forlorn.

GOD deals death and gives life,
Casts down into Sheol and raises up.

GOD makes poor and makes rich,
Casts down, and also lifts high—

Raising the poor from the dust,
Lifting up the needy from the dunghill,
To set them with nobles,
Granting them seats of honor.
For the pillars of the earth belong to GOD,
Who has set the world upon them.

[God] guards the steps of the faithful,
But the wicked perish in darkness—
For none shall prevail by strength.

GOD’s foes shall be shattered—
Thundered against from the heavens.
GOD will judge the ends of the earth—
Giving power to the king,
And triumph to the anointed one.

Then Elkanah [and Hannah] went home to Ramah; and the boy entered the service of GOD under the priest Eli.

Now Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they paid no heed to GOD.

This is how the priests used to deal with the people: Whenever anyone brought a sacrifice, the priest’s boy would come along with a three-pronged fork while the meat was boiling,

and he would thrust it into cauldron, or the kettle, or the great pot, or the small cooking-pot; and whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take away on it. This was the practice at Shiloh with all the Israelites who came there.

[But now] even before the suet was turned into smoke, the priest’s boy would come and say to the party that was sacrificing, “Hand over some meat to roast for the priest; for he won’t accept boiled meat from you, only raw.”

And if the response to this was, “Let them first turn the suet into smoke, and then take as much as you want,” he would reply, “No, hand it over at once or I’ll take it by force.”

The sin of the young men against GOD was very great, for those men treated GOD’s offerings impiously.

Samuel was engaged in the service of GOD as an attendant, girded with a linen ephod.

His mother would also make a little robe for him and bring it up to him every year, when she made the pilgrimage with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May GOD grant you offspring by this woman in place of the loan she made to GOD.” Then they would return home.

For GOD took note of Hannah; she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Young Samuel meanwhile grew up in the service of GOD.

Now Eli was very old. When he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who performed tasks at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,

he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I get evil reports about you from the people on all hands.

Don’t, my sons! It is no favorable report I hear GOD’s people spreading about.

If someone sins against another person, God may grant a pardon; but if someone offends against GOD, who can obtain a pardon?” But they ignored their father’s plea; for GOD was resolved that they should die.

Young Samuel, meanwhile, grew in esteem and favor both with God and with other people.

An agent of God came to Eli, and he said to him, “Thus said GOD: Lo, I revealed Myself to your father’s house in Egypt when they were subject to the House of Pharaoh,

and I chose them from among all the tribes of Israel to be My priests—to ascend My altar, to burn incense, [and] to carry an ephod before Me—and I assigned to your father’s house all offerings by fire of the Israelites.

Why, then, do you maliciously trample upon the sacrifices and offerings that I have commanded? with ʻoyen, “keeping a jealous eye”; see 1 Sam. 18.9); cf. v. 32 and note there. You have honored your sons more than Me, feeding on the first portions of every offering of My people Israel.

Assuredly—declares the ETERNAL, the God of Israel—I intended for you and your father’s house to remain in My service forever. But now—declares GOD—far be it from Me! For I honor those who honor Me, but those who spurn Me shall be dishonored.

A time is coming when I will break your power and that of your father’s house, and there shall be no elder in your house.

You will gaze grudgingly at all the bounty that will be bestowed on Israel, but there shall never be an elder in your house.

I shall not cut off all your offspring from My altar; [but,] to make your eyes pine and your spirit languish, all the increase in your house shall die as [ordinary] men.

And this shall be a sign for you: The fate of your two sons Hophni and Phinehas—they shall both die on the same day.

And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will act in accordance with My wishes and My purposes. I will build for him an enduring house, and he shall walk before My anointed evermore.

And all the survivors of your house shall come and bow low to him for the sake of a money fee and a loaf of bread, and shall say, ‘Please, assign me to one of the priestly duties, that I may have a morsel of bread to eat.’”