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 prays and says: “My heart has exulted in YHWH, My horn has been high in YHWH, My mouth has been large over my enemies, For I have rejoiced in Your salvation.
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 like YHWH, For there is none except You, And there is no rock 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!
You do not multiply—you speak haughtily—The old saying goes out from your mouth, For YHWH [is] a God of knowledge, And actions are weighed by Him.
4 Yahweh, you break the bows/weapons of mighty soldiers, and you give strength to those who stumble [because of being weak].
Bows of the mighty are broken, And the stumbling have girded on 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].
The satiated hired themselves for bread, And the hungry have ceased. While the barren has borne seven, And she abounding with sons has languished.
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 h7585)
YHWH puts to death, and keeps alive, He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. (Sheol h7585)
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.
YHWH dispossesses, and He makes rich, He makes low, indeed, He makes high.
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 raises the poor from the dust, He lifts up the needy from a dunghill, To cause [them] to sit with nobles, Indeed, He causes them to inherit a throne of glory, For the fixtures of earth [are] of YHWH, And He sets the habitable world on 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;
He keeps the feet of His saints, And the wicked are silent in darkness, For man does not become mighty by power.
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].”
YHWH—His adversaries are broken down, He thunders against them in the heavens: YHWH judges the ends of the earth, And gives strength to His king, And exalts the horn of His anointed.”
11 Then Elkanah [and his family] returned to Ramah, but Samuel, the little boy, stayed to help Eli the priest serve Yahweh.
And Elkanah goes to Ramath, to his house, and the youth has been serving YHWH [in] the presence of Eli the priest;
12 Eli’s two [, who were also priests, ] were very wicked. They did not revere (OR, respect/obey) Yahweh.
and the sons of Eli [are] sons of worthlessness, they have not known YHWH.
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].
And the custom of the priests with the people [is that when] any man is sacrificing a sacrifice, then the servant of the priest has come in when the flesh is boiling, and [with] the hook of 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 has struck [it] into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the hook brings up the priest takes for himself; thus they do to all Israel who are coming in there in 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.”
Also, before they make incense with the fat, then the priest’s servant has come in and said to the man who is sacrificing, “Give flesh to roast for the priest, and he does not take boiled flesh from you, but raw”;
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 the man says to him, “Let them surely make incense with the fat according to the [custom] today, then take to yourself as your soul desires”; and he has said to him, “Surely you give now; and if not—I have taken by strength.”
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.
And the sin of the young men is very great [in] the presence of YHWH, for the men have despised the offering of YHWH.
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].
And Samuel is ministering [in] the presence of YHWH, a youth girt [with] an ephod of linen;
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 makes a small upper coat for him, and she has brought it up to him from time to time, in her coming up with her husband to sacrifice the sacrifice of the time.
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, “YHWH appoints seed of this woman for you, for the petition which she asked for YHWH”; and they have gone to 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].
When YHWH has looked after Hannah, then she conceives and bears three sons and two daughters; and the youth Samuel grows up with YHWH.
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].
And Eli [is] very old, and has heard all that his sons do to all Israel, and how that they lie with the women who are assembling [at] the opening of the Tent of Meeting,
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 he says to them, “Why do you do things like these? For I am hearing of your evil words from all the people—these!
24 My sons, stop it! The reports [about you] that the people who belong to Yahweh tell others are terrible [EUP]!
No, my sons; for the report which I am hearing is not good, causing the people of YHWH to transgress.
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 a man sins against a man, then God has judged him; but if a man sins against YHWH, who prays for him?” And they do not listen to the voice of their father, though YHWH has delighted to put them to death.
26 The boy Samuel continued to grow up, and the things that he did pleased Yahweh and the people.
And the youth Samuel is going on and growing up, and [is] good with both YHWH, 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 a man of God comes to Eli and says to him, “Thus said YHWH: Was I really revealed to the house of your father in their being in Egypt, before Pharaoh’s 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].
even to choose him out of all the tribes of Israel for a priest for Myself, to go up on My altar, to make incense, to bear an ephod before Me, and I give to the house of your father all the fire-offerings of the sons 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!’
Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering, which I commanded [in] My habitation, and honor your sons above Me, to make yourselves fat from the first part of every offering of Israel, of 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.
Therefore—a declaration of YHWH, God of Israel—I certainly said, Your house and the house of your father walk up and down before Me for all time; and now—a declaration of YHWH—Far be it from Me! For he who is honoring Me, I honor, and those despising Me, are lightly esteemed.
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.
Behold, days [are] coming, and I have cut off your arm, and the arm of the house of your father, that an old man is not in your 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 you have beheld an adversary [in My] habitation, in all that He does good with Israel, and there is not an old man in your house all the days.
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.
And the man of yours I do not cut off from My altar—[My purpose is] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your soul; and all the increase of men [in] your house die;
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 [is] the sign to you that comes to your two sons, to Hophni and Phinehas—in one day both of them die;
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 have raised up a steadfast priest for Myself; he does as in My heart and in My soul; and I have built a steadfast house for him, and he has walked up and down before My anointed all the days;
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 it has been, everyone who is left in your house comes to bow himself to him for a wage of silver and a cake of bread, and has said, Please admit me to one of the priest’s offices, to eat a morsel of bread.”
