First Samuel 2:2-27

²There is no one holy like Yahweh, for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

³Boast no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come out of your mouth. For Yahweh is a God of knowledge; by him actions are weighed.

⁴The bow of the mighty men are broken, but those who stumble put on strength like a belt.

⁵Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread; those who were hungry have stopped being hungry. Even the barren one gives birth to seven, but the woman who has many children languishes.

⁶Yahweh kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

⁷Yahweh makes some people poor and some rich. He humbles, but he also lifts up.

⁸He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit the seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's and he has set the world upon them.

⁹He will guard the feet of his faithful people, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness, for no one will prevail by strength.

¹⁰Those who oppose Yahweh will be broken to pieces; he will thunder against them from heaven. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

¹¹Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. The child served Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know Yahweh.

¹³The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand, while the meat was boiling.

¹⁴He would stick it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. They did this in Shiloh with all the Israelites that came there.

¹⁵Worse, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

¹⁶If the man said to him, “They must burn the fat first, and then take as much as you want.” Then he would say, “No, you will give it me now; if not, I will take it by force.”

¹⁷The sin of these young men was very great before Yahweh, for they despised Yahweh's offering.

¹⁸But Samuel served Yahweh as a child clothed with a linen ephod.

¹⁹His mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

²⁰Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May Yahweh give you more children by this woman because of the request she made of Yahweh.” Then they would return to their own home.

²¹Yahweh again helped Hannah, and again she became pregnant. She bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew before Yahweh.

²²Now Eli was very old; he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

²³He said to them, “Why do you such things? For I hear of your evil actions from all these people.”

²⁴No, my sons; for it is not a good report that I hear. You make Yahweh's people disobey.

²⁵“If one man sins against another, God will judge him; but if a man sins against Yahweh, who will speak for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh intended to kill them.

²⁶The child Samuel grew up, and increased in favor with Yahweh and also with men.

²⁷Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Yahweh says, 'Did I not reveal myself to the house of your ancestor, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house?