< 1 Samuel 2 >
1 And she said, "My heart rejoices in the LORD. My strength rises up in my God. My mouth boasts over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.
2 Truly, there is no one as holy as the LORD. Truly, there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
3 Do not speak boastfully or let arrogance come out of your mouth, for the LORD is a God of knowledge. By him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty men are broken. Those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children languishes.
6 The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. (Sheol )
7 The LORD makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up.
8 He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's. He has set the world on them.
9 He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness. For no man will prevail by strength.
10 The LORD will shatter his adversaries. He will thunder against them in the sky. "The LORD will judge the farthest parts of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed."
11 And she went to Ramah, while the child served the LORD before Eli the cohen.
12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD.
13 The custom of the cohanim with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the cohen's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand;
14 and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the cohen took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15 Yes, before they burnt the fat, the cohen's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, "Give meat to roast for the cohen; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw."
16 If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned first, and then take all of it which 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."
17 The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for they despised the offering of the LORD.
18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod.
19 Moreover 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.
20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and said, "May the LORD repay you with offspring by this woman for the gift which she made to the LORD." And the man returned to his home.
21 The LORD visited Hannah, and she bore more children, three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.
22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard what his sons did to the children of Israel (and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting).
23 And he said to them, "Why do you do such things as these that I hear being said of you from the mouth of the people of the LORD?
24 No, my sons, do not do this. For it is not a good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading.
25 If a man sins gravely against another, he can appeal to the LORD; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But, they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them.
26 The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD, and also with men.
27 A man of God came to Eli, and said, "Thus says the LORD, I plainly revealed myself to the house of your father, when they were slaves in Egypt to the house of Pharaoh.
28 And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my cohen, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel as food.
29 Then why do you look at my sacrifice and my offering with a selfish eye, and honor your sons more than me in letting them eat from the first part of every offering of Israel before me?'
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, 'Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31 Look, the days come, that I will cut off your descendants, and the descendants of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.
32 And you will see distress in the dwelling place, in all that he does good with Israel. And there will not be an old man in your house all the days.
33 And the man of yours I do not cut off from my altar will be to cause his eyes to fail and to grieve his soul, and all the increase of your house will die by the sword of men.
34 "'This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.
35 I will raise me up a faithful cohen, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.
36 It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Please put me into one of the cohanim' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"
