The First of Samuel
2 And Hanʹnah went on to pray+ and say:
“My heart does exult in Jehovah,+
My horn is indeed exalted in Jehovah.*+
My mouth is widened against my enemies,
For I do rejoice in the salvation from you.+
3 Do not YOU people speak very haughtily so much,
Let nothing go forth unrestrained from YOUR mouth,+
5 The satisfied must hire themselves out for bread,+
But the hungry actually cease [to hunger].+
Even* the barren has given birth to seven,+
But she that was abundant in sons has faded away.+
7 Jehovah is an Impoverisher+ and an Enricher,+
An Abaser, also an Exalter,+
8 A Raiser of a lowly one from the dust;+
From the ashpit he lifts up a poor one,+
To make them sit with nobles; and a throne of glory+ he gives to them as a possession.+
For to Jehovah belong earth’s supports,+
And he places upon them the productive land.*
10 As for Jehovah, those contending against him will be terrified;+
Against them* he will thunder in the heavens.+
Jehovah himself will judge the ends of the earth,+
That he may give strength to his king,+
11 Then El·kaʹnah went to Raʹmah to his house;* and as for the boy, he became a minister*+ of Jehovah before Eʹli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eʹli were good-for-nothing men;*+ they did not acknowledge Jehovah.+ 13 As for the due right of the priests from* the people,*+ whenever any man was offering a sacrifice, an attendant of the priest came with the three-pronged fork in his hand, just when the meat was boiling,+ 14 and made a thrust into the basin or the two-handled cooking pot or the caldron or the one-handled cooking pot. Anything that the fork might bring up the priest would take for himself.* That is the way they would do in Shiʹloh to all the Israelites coming there.*+ 15 Also, before ever they could make the fat smoke,+ an attendant of the priest came and said to the man sacrificing: “Do give meat to roast for the priest so that he may receive from you, not boiled meat, but raw.”+ 16 When the man would say to him: “Let them be sure to make the fat smoke first of all.+ Then take for yourself just whatever your soul may crave,”+ he actually said: “No,* but you should give it now; and, if not, I shall have to take it by force!”+ 17 And the sin of the attendants* came to be very great before Jehovah;+ for the men treated the offering of Jehovah with disrespect.+
18 And Samuel was ministering+ before Jehovah, as a boy, having a linen ephʹod girded on.+ 19 Also, a little sleeveless coat his mother would make for him, and she brought it up to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to sacrifice the yearly sacrifice.+ 20 And Eʹli blessed+ El·kaʹnah and his wife and said: “May Jehovah appoint to you an offspring from this wife in place of the thing lent, that was lent to Jehovah.”*+ And they went to their place.* 21 Accordingly Jehovah turned his attention to Hanʹnah,+ so that she had pregnancy and gave birth* to three sons and two daughters.+ And the boy Samuel continued growing up with Jehovah.+
22 And Eʹli was very old, and he had heard+ of all that his sons kept doing+ to all Israel and how they would lie down with the women+ that were serving* at the entrance of the tent of meeting.*+ 23 And he used to say to them:+ “Why do YOU keep doing things like these?+ For the things I am hearing about YOU from all the people are bad.*+ 24 No,+ my sons, because the report is not good that I am hearing, that the people of Jehovah are causing to circulate.+ 25 If a man should sin against a man,+ God will arbitrate for him;+ but if it is against Jehovah that a man should sin,+ who is there to pray for him?”+ But they would not listen to the voice of their father,+ because Jehovah was now pleased to put them to death.+ 26 All the while the boy Samuel was growing bigger and more likable* both from Jehovah’s standpoint and from that of men.+
27 And a man of God*+ proceeded to come to Eʹli and say to him: “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Did I not for a fact reveal myself to the house of your forefather while they happened to be in Egypt as slaves* to the house of Pharʹaoh?+ 28 And there was a choosing* of him out of all the tribes of Israel for me,+ to act as priest* and go up upon my altar+ to make sacrificial smoke billow up,* to bear an ephʹod before me, that I might give to the house of your forefather all the offerings made by fire of the sons of Israel.+ 29 Why do YOU men keep kicking at my sacrifice+ and at my offering that I have commanded [in my] dwelling,*+ and you keep honoring your sons more than me by fattening yourselves*+ from the best of every offering of Israel my people?*+
30 “‘That is why the utterance of Jehovah the God of Israel is: “I did indeed say, As for your house and the house of your forefather, they will walk before me to time indefinite.”+ But now the utterance of Jehovah is: “It is unthinkable, on my part, because those honoring me+ I shall honor,+ and those despising me will be of little account.”+ 31 Look! Days are coming when I shall certainly chop off your arm and the arm of the house of your forefather, so that there will not come to be an old man in your house.+ 32 And you will actually look upon an adversary [in my] dwelling amid all the good that is done to Israel;+ and never will there come to be an old man in your house. 33 And yet there is a man of yours that I shall not cut off from being at my altar so as to cause your* eyes to fail and to make your* soul pine away; but the greater number of your house will all die by the sword of men.*+ 34 And this is the sign for you that will come to your two sons, Hophʹni and Phinʹe·has:+ On one day both of them will die.+ 35 And I shall certainly raise up for myself a faithful priest.+ In harmony with what is in my heart and in my soul he will do; and I shall certainly build for him a lasting* house, and he will certainly walk before my anointed+ one* always.* 36 And it must occur that anyone left over+ in your house will come and bow down to him for the payment of money and a round loaf of bread, and will certainly say: “Attach me, please, to one of the priestly offices to eat a piece of bread.”’”+