Dual Panel1Then Hannah offered this prayer: “My heart exults in the LORD, in the LORD I now hold my head high; I gloat over my enemies; I rejoice because you have saved me.
2There is none but you, none so holy as the LORD, none so righteous as our God.
3“Cease your proud boasting, let no word of arrogance pass your lips, for the LORD is a God who knows; he governs what mortals do.
4Strong men stand in mute dismay, but those who faltered put on new strength.
5Those who had plenty sell themselves for a crust, and the hungry grow strong again. The barren woman bears seven children, and the mother of many sons is left to languish.
6“The LORD metes out both death and life: he sends down to Sheol, he can bring the dead up again.
7Poverty and riches both come from the LORD; he brings low and he raises up.
8He lifts the weak out of the dust and raises the poor from the refuse heap to give them a place among the great, to assign them seats of honour. “The foundations of the earth are the LORD's, and he has set the world upon them.
9He will guard the footsteps of his loyal servants, while the wicked will be silenced in darkness; for it is not by strength that a mortal prevails.
10“Those who oppose the LORD will be terrified when from the heavens he thunders against them. The LORD is judge even to the ends of the earth; he will endow his king with strength and raise high the head of his anointed one.”
11Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy remained behind in the service of the LORD under Eli the priest.
12Eli's sons were scoundrels with little regard for the LORD.
13The custom of the priests in their dealings with the people was this: when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the flesh was stewing
14and would thrust a three-pronged fork into the cauldron or pan or kettle or pot; and the priest would take whatever the fork brought out. This should have been their practice whenever Israelites came to sacrifice at Shiloh; but now,
15even before the fat was burnt, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give me meat to roast for the priest; he will not accept what has been already stewed, only raw meat.”
16And if the man protested, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take what you want,” the servant would say, “No, hand it over now, or I shall take it by force.”
17The young men's sin was very great in the LORD's sight, for they caused what was offered to him to be brought into general contempt.
18Samuel continued in the service of the LORD, a mere boy with a linen ephod fastened round him.
19Every year his mother made him a little cloak and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
20Eli would give his blessing to Elkanah and his wife and say, “The LORD grant you children by this woman in place of the one whom you made over to the LORD.” Then they would return home.
21The LORD showed his care for Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters; meanwhile the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.
22When Eli, now a very old man, heard a detailed account of how his sons were treating all the Israelites, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,
23he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from every quarter how wickedly you behave.
24Do stop it, my sons; for this is not a good report that I hear spreading among the LORD's people.
25If someone sins against another, God will intervene; but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” They would not listen, however, to their father's rebuke, for the LORD meant to bring about their death.
26The young Samuel, as he grew up, increasingly commended himself to the LORD and to the people.
27A man of God came to Eli and said, “This is the word of the LORD: You know that I revealed myself to your forefather's house when he and his family were in Egypt in slavery to the house of Pharaoh.
28You know that I chose your forefather out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to carry the ephod before me; and that I assigned all the food-offerings of the Israelites to your family.
29Why then do you show disrespect for my sacrifices and the offerings which I have ordained? What makes you resent them? Why do you honour your sons more than me by letting them batten on the choicest offerings of my people Israel?
30The LORD's word was: I promise that your house and your father's house will serve before me for all time. But now his word is: I shall have no such thing; I shall honour those who honour me, and those who despise me will meet with contempt.
31The time is coming when I shall lop off every limb of your own and of your father's family, so that no one in your house will attain old age.
32You will even resent the prosperity I give to Israel; never again will anyone in your house live to old age.
33If I allow any to survive to serve my altar, his eyes will grow dim, his appetite fail, and his issue will be weaklings and die off.
34The fate of your two sons will be a proof to you; Hophni and Phinehas will both die on the same day.
35I shall appoint for myself a priest who will be faithful, who will do what I have in my mind and in my heart. I shall establish his family to serve in perpetual succession before my anointed king.
36Any of your family still left will come and bow humbly before him to beg for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and ask for a turn of priestly duty to earn a crust.”