1 Samuel 2:2-27

²There is none holy as the Lord: yea, there is none besides thee, and there is no god like our God.

³Speake 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.

⁴The bow and the mightie men are broken, and the weake haue girded themselues with strength.

⁵They 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.

⁶The Lord killeth and maketh aliue: bringeth downe to the graue and raiseth vp.

⁷The Lord maketh poore and maketh rich: bringeth lowe, and exalteth.

⁸He 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.

⁹Hee 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.

¹⁰The 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.

¹¹And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the childe did minister vnto the Lord before Eli the Priest.

¹²Now the sonnes of Eli were wicked men, and knewe not the Lord.

¹³For 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,

¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵Yea, 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.

¹⁶And 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.

¹⁷Therefore the sinne of the yong men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.

¹⁸Now Samuel being a yong childe ministred before the Lord, girded with a linen Ephod.

¹⁹And 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.

²⁰And 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.

²¹And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceiued, and bare three sonnes, and two daughters. And the childe Samuel grewe before the Lord.

²²So 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.

²³And hee saide vnto them, Why doe ye such things? for of all this people I heare euill reportes of you.

²⁴Do no more, my sonnes, for it is no good report that I heare, which is, that ye make the Lords people to trespasse.

²⁵If 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(Nowe the childe Samuel profited and grewe, and was in fauour both with the Lord and also with men)

²⁷And 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?