Hannah’s song
2
📚✭And Hannah prayed, and said,“My heart rejoices✭ in the LORD.
My horn✭ is exalted in the LORD:
my mouth is opened wide
against my enemies,
because I rejoice in your
salvation.
2 📚There is no one holy✭ like
the LORD,
for there is no one
besides you,
nor is there any rock✭
like our God.
3 📚“Do not any longer speak
so exceedingly proudly,
or let arrogance✭ come out of
your mouth.
For the LORD is a
God of knowledge✭,
and by him actions are weighed.
4 📚“The bows of the mighty men
are broken,
and those who stumbled are clothed
with strength.
5 📚✭Those who were full have hired
themselves out for bread,
and those who were hungry
cease to be so
While the barren has given
birth to seven,
she who has many children has
become feeble.
6 📚The LORD kills, and makes alive.
He brings down to the grave✭,
and raises up.
7 📚The LORD makes poor,
and makes rich;
he brings low, and lifts up.
8 📚He raises the poor up from the dust,
and lifts the beggar up
from the ash heap to set them
among princes,
and to make them inherit
the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth✭ are the LORD’s,
and he has set the world
on them.
9 📚He will keep✭ the feet of his saints,
and the wicked will be silent
in darkness✭;
for no man will prevail by strength✭.
10 📚The enemies of the LORD will be broken
to pieces.
He will thunder✭ on them
from the heavens.
The LORD will judge✭ the ends
of the earth,
and he will give strength
to his king,
and exalt the horn of his anointed✭”.
11 📚And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child ministered✭ to the LORD in the presence of Eli the priest.
Eli’s ungodly sons
12 📚Now the sons of Eli were wicked scoundrels. They did not know✭ the LORD✭. 13 📚And the priests’ custom with the people was this: when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14 📚and he would stick it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest took for himself. This is how they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15 📚Also before they burned the fat✭, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled meat from you, but raw”.
16 📚And if anyone said to him, “Let them first burn the fat, and then take as much as your soul desires”, then he would answer him, “No, but you must give it to me now. If not, I will take it by force”.
17 📚✭Therefore the sin of the young men was very great in the eyes of the LORD; for men despised the offering of the LORD.
18 📚But Samuel ministered✭ before the LORD, a child wearing a linen ephod. 19 📚✭Moreover his 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. 20 📚✭And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said, “The LORD give you offspring by this woman for the gift which is given to the LORD”. And they went to their own home. 21 📚And the LORD looked after Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD✭.
22 📚✭Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 23 📚✭And he said to them, “Why do you such things? For I hear of your evil actions from all this people. 24 📚No, my sons, for it is not a good report that I hear. You make the LORD’s people to transgress. 25 📚If one man sins against another, the judge will judge him, but if a man sins against the LORD, who will plead✭ for him?” However they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD had determined✭ to kill✭ them.
26 📚✭And the child Samuel grew and was in favour with both the LORD and also with men.
God against the house of Eli
27 📚And a man of God✭ came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, Did I not plainly reveal myself to the household of your father✭, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? 28 📚And did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to make offerings on my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings made by fire from the children of Israel? 29 📚Why do you✭ kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling, and honour your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of my people Israel?
30 📚✭“Therefore the LORD God of Israel says, I indeed said that your household and the household of your father, would walk before me forever; but now the LORD says, Be it far from me. For those who honour me I will honour✭, and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed. 31 📚✭See, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s household, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 📚And you will see an enemy in my dwelling, among all the wealth which God will give Israel; and there will never be an old man in your house. 33 📚And every man of you whom I do not cut off from my altar, will be to cause your eyes to perish, and to grieve your heart. And all those raised in your house will die in the flower of their age.
34 📚“And this will be a sign to you: it will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas. In one day both of them will die. 35 📚And I will raise up a faithful priest✭ for myself who will act in accordance with what is in my heart and in my mind, and I will firmly establish a house for him; and he will walk before my anointed one✭ forever. 36 📚✭And it will come about that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and will say, ‘Please assign me to one of the priests’ duties so that I can eat a piece of bread.’ ”