< 1 Samuel 2 >
1 Then Hannah prayed, saying, “I rejoice in [what] you, [, have done]. I am strong [MET] because I belong to you. I (laugh at/ridicule) my enemies, because you, Yahweh have rescued me [from being taunted by them].
And Hannah prayed, and said, Mine heart reioyceth in the Lord, mine horne is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged ouer mine enemies, because I reioyce in thy saluation.
2 There is no one who is holy like you, Yahweh. There is no other god like you. There is no one like you, our God, who can protect us [as though you were putting us beneath] a huge rock [where we can hide from danger].
There is none holy as the Lord: yea, there is none besides thee, and there is no god like our God.
3 [You people who oppose God], stop boasting! Yahweh is a God who knows [everything], and he will evaluate/judge everyone’s actions. So don’t speak so arrogantly!
Speake no more presumptuously: let not arrogancie come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him enterprises are established.
4 Yahweh, you break the bows/weapons of mighty soldiers, and you give strength to those who stumble [because of being weak].
The bow and the mightie men are broken, and the weake haue girded themselues with strength.
5 Many people who previously had plenty to eat, now have to work for other people [to earn money] to buy food, but many who were always hungry are not hungry any more. The woman who did not have any children before, now has given birth to many/seven children, and the woman who had many children before, now is very lonely [because they have all died].
They that were full, are hired foorth for bread, and the hungrie are no more hired, so that the barren hath borne seuen: and shee that had many children, is feeble.
6 Yahweh, you cause some people to die, and you restore some people who are almost dead. For some people, [it seems that they will soon] go to where the dead people are, but you cause them to become healthy again. (Sheol )
The Lord killeth and maketh aliue: bringeth downe to the graue and raiseth vp. (Sheol )
7 Yahweh, you cause some people to be poor and you cause some people to be rich, you humble some people and you honor some people.
The Lord maketh poore and maketh rich: bringeth lowe, and exalteth.
8 [Sometimes] you lift poor people up so that they are no longer [despondent, sitting in the dust, ] or sitting on heaps of ashes; you cause them to sit next to princes; you cause them to sit on chairs/thrones where people who are highly honored sit. Yahweh, you are the one who laid the foundations of the earth, and you have set the whole world on those foundations.
He raiseth vp ye poore out of the dust, and lifteth vp the begger from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherite the seate of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lordes, and he hath set the world vpon them.
9 You will protect your loyal/faithful people [SYN], but you will cause the wicked to die [EUP] and descend to the dark [place where dead people are]. We do not defeat [our enemies] by our own strength;
Hee will keepe the feete of his Saintes, and the wicked shall keepe silence in darkenes: for in his owne might shall no man be strong.
10 Yahweh, you will break into pieces those who oppose you. You will cause thunder in the sky to show that you (oppose/are angry with) them. Yahweh, you will judge [people everywhere, even those who live in] the most remote places on the earth. You will give strength to the king whom you will appoint, and give him great power [over his enemies].”
The Lordes aduersaries shall be destroyed, and out of heauen shall he thunder vpon them: the Lord shall iudge the endes of the worlde, and shall giue power vnto his King, and exalt the horne of his Anoynted.
11 Then Elkanah [and his family] returned to Ramah, but Samuel, the little boy, stayed to help Eli the priest serve Yahweh.
And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the childe did minister vnto the Lord before Eli the Priest.
12 Eli’s two [, who were also priests, ] were very wicked. They did not revere (OR, respect/obey) Yahweh.
Now the sonnes of Eli were wicked men, and knewe not the Lord.
13 While the people were boiling the meat from their sacrifices [in the huge pot at the temple], one of Eli’s sons, [would send his servant to come with a large three-pronged fork in his hand].
For the Priestes custome towarde the people was this: when any man offered sacrifice, the Priestes boy came, while the flesh was seething, and a fleshhooke with three teeth, in his hand,
14 [He] would stick the fork into [the meat in] the pot, and whatever meat fastened onto the fork, he would take [and give it] to the priest who sent him. Eli’s sons did this to all the Israeli people who came to Shiloh [to offer sacrifices].
And thrust it into the kettle, or into the caldron, or into the panne, or into the potte: all that the fleshhooke brought vp, the Priest tooke for himselfe: thus they did vnto all the Israelites, that came thither to Shiloh.
15 Furthermore, before the fat [on the meat] was [cut off and] and burned [as a sacrifice to Yahweh], the servant of the priest would [sometimes] come to the man who was making the sacrifice and say to him, “Give me some meat [now to take] to the priest for him to roast! He wants raw meat; he does not want boiled meat.”
Yea, before they burnt the fat, the priests boy came and saide to the man that offered, Giue me flesh to rost for the priest: for he wil not haue sodden flesh of thee, but rawe.
16 If the man said to the servant, “Let the priests [cut off and] burn the fat first; then you can take what you want,” the servant would reply, “No, give it to me now; if you do not give it to me, I will take it forcefully!”
And if any man saide vnto him, Let them burne the fatte according to the custome, then take as much as thine heart desireth: then hee would answere, No, but thou shalt giue it nowe: and if thou wilt not, I will take it by force.
17 Yahweh considered that the young [sons of Eli] were committing a very great sin, because they were treating very disrespectfully the offerings that were being given to Yahweh.
Therefore the sinne of the yong men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.
18 As for Samuel, who was still a very young boy, he continued to do work for Yahweh, wearing a little sacred linen vest [like the Supreme Priest wore].
Now Samuel being a yong childe ministred before the Lord, girded with a linen Ephod.
19 Each year his mother made a [new] little robe for him and took it to him when she went up [to Shiloh] with her husband to offer a sacrifice.
And his mother made him a litle coat, and brought it to him from yeere to yeere, when she came vp with her husband, to offer the yerely sacrifice.
20 Then Eli would [ask God to] bless Elkanah and his wife, and he would say to Elkanah, “I hope/desire that Yahweh will enable your wife to give birth to other children, to take the place of the one whom she dedicated to Yahweh.” Then Elkanah and his family would return home.
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The Lord giue thee seede of this woman, for the petition that she asked of the Lord: and they departed vnto their place.
21 And Yahweh was very kind to Hannah, and enabled her to give birth to three [other] sons and two daughters. Their son Samuel grew up while he was doing work for Yahweh [in the Sacred Tent].
And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceiued, and bare three sonnes, and two daughters. And the childe Samuel grewe before the Lord.
22 Eli became very old. He often heard about all the [evil] things that his sons were doing to the Israeli people. He heard that they [sometimes] (slept with/had sex with) the women who worked at the entrance to the tent where [God] spoke to [his people].
So Eli was very olde, and heard all that his sonnes did vnto all Israel, and howe they laye with the women that assembled at the doore of the tabernacle of the Congregation.
23 He said to them, “(It is terrible that you do such things!/Why do you do such things?) [RHQ] Many people keep telling me about the evil things that you do.
And hee saide vnto them, Why doe ye such things? for of all this people I heare euill reportes of you.
24 My sons, stop it! The reports [about you] that the people who belong to Yahweh tell others are terrible [EUP]!
Do no more, my sonnes, for it is no good report that I heare, which is, that ye make the Lords people to trespasse.
25 If one person sins against another person, God can (intercede/act as a referee) between them. But if someone sins against Yahweh, no one can [RHQ] (intercede/act as a referee) between them!” But Eli’s sons would not listen to what their father said. This was because Yahweh had decided [that someone should] them.
If one man sinne against another, the Iudge shall iudge it: but if a man sinne against the Lord, who will pleade for him? Notwithstanding they obeyed not the voyce of their father, because the Lord would slay them.
26 The boy Samuel continued to grow up, and the things that he did pleased Yahweh and the people.
(Nowe the childe Samuel profited and grewe, and was in fauour both with the Lord and also with men)
27 One day, a prophet came to Eli and told him, “This is what Yahweh has told me: ‘When your ancestors were slaves of the king of Egypt, I appeared to Aaron.
And there came a man of God vnto Eli, and said vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did not I plainely appeare vnto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaohs house?
28 From all the tribes of the Israeli people, I chose him [and his male descendants] to be priests for me. I appointed them to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear a sacred apron [as they worked] for me. And I declared that they could take [and eat some of the meat] that the Israeli people burned [on the altar].
And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my Priest, to offer vpon mine altar, and to burne incense, and to weare an Ephod before me, and I gaue vnto the house of thy father all the offrings made by fire of the children of Israel.
29 So why do you show disrespect for the sacrifices and offerings that I commanded [the people to bring] to me [RHQ]? You are honoring your sons more than you are honoring me, by allowing them to get fat from eating the best parts of all the sacrifices that the Israeli people bring to me!’
Wherefore haue you kicked against my sacrifice and mine offering, which I commanded in my Tabernacle, and honourest thy children aboue mee, to make your selues fatte of the first fruites of all the offerings of Israel my people?
30 “Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship], declares: ‘I definitely promised that Aaron and his descendants would continue to serve [IDM] me forever.’ But now I declare this: ‘It will not continue like that! I will honor those who honor me, but I will despise those who despise me.
Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I saide, that thine house and the house of thy father should walke before mee for euer: but nowe the Lord saith, It shall not be so: for them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me, shall be despised.
31 Listen carefully! There will soon be a time when I will cause all the strong [young men] in your family to die. The result will be that no men in your family will [live long enough to] become old men.
Beholde, the dayes come, that I will cut off thine arme, and the arme of thy fathers house, that there shall not be an olde man in thine house.
32 You will be distressed and envious as you see the blessings that I will give to [the other people in] Israel. And [I repeat that] no men in your family will ever live long enough to become old men.
And thou shalt see thine enemie in the habitation of the Lord in all thinges wherewith God shall blesse Israel, and there shall not be an olde man in thine house for euer.
33 There is one of your descendants whom I will spare, and not prevent him from serving me as a priest. But he will become blind, and then he will always be sad and grieving. But all your other descendants will die violently.
Neuerthelesse, I will not destroy euery one of thine from mine altar, to make thine eyes to faile, and to make thine heart sorowfull: and all ye multitude of thine house shall die when they be men.
34 And your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will both die on the same day. And that will prove to you [that all that I have said will come true/happen].
And this shalbe a signe vnto thee, that shall come vpon thy two sonnes Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both.
35 ‘have chosen another man to be my priest. He is one who will serve me faithfully: He will do everything I want [DOU] him to do. And I will enable him to have many descendants [IDM] who will be priests and will always serve me by helping the king whom I will choose.
And I will stirre me vp a faithfull Priest, that shall do according to mine heart and according to my minde: and I wil build him a sure house, and he shall walke before mine Anointed for euer.
36 All of your descendants who remain alive will have to go to that priest and ask him to give them money and food, and they will each have to say, “Please allow me to help the other priests, in order that I may [earn some money to] buy some food.”’”
And all that are left in thine house, shall come and bowe downe to him for a piece of siluer and a morsell of bread, and shall say, Appoint me, I pray thee, to one of the priestes offices, that I may eate a morsell of bread.