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.
2:5 God by his grace can completely reverse conditions among men. God’s power and sovereignty over the earth are declared in the verses which follow.⚜
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 📖”.
2:1-10 Compare Hannah’s song of praise with that of Mary in Luke 1:46-55. This song shows a good grasp of important theological truth and no little poetical ability.⚜
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.
2:17 If they had no respect for the Lord they certainly would have no respect for His offerings or for His people. Lack of the fear of God (Gen 20:11; Ps 34:11-14) accounts for many of the sad and sinful things that go on today in some Christian circles.⚜
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.
2:19 The robe Samuel’s mother lovingly brought him each year was not the ephod (v 18), but a garment for every day use.⚜
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 📖.
2:20-21 1 Sam 1:11, 27, 28. Acts of faith and devotion such as Hannah’s will always be rewarded – if not in this world, then certainly in the next. God loves to be gracious to His people. Hannah gave one son to God and received five children in return. Compare Luke 6:38.⚜
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.
2:22 Verse 12. Because of the evil lives of Eli’s sons Samuel was in some danger of learning a corrupt life style. But God guarded the lad and kept him pure for His service (v 9).⚜
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.
2:23-25 It seems that Eli was an indulgent parent who had not trained his children properly and had let them do as they pleased (v 29). They had been guilty of persistent wickedness (vs 12-17), but as far as we can tell from the record Eli did not so much as rebuke them until he heard of their sexual immorality. When his rebuke came, it was far too mild. The penalty under the law for such sins as theirs, as Eli should have known, was death, not a mild rebuke. See Ex 21:36. Those parents who will not bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, who let them have their own way, will spoil them and bring grief to themselves (1 Kings 1:6; Prov 19:18; 22:6, 15; 23:13; 29:15).⚜
26 📚And the child Samuel grew and was in favour with both the LORD and also with men.
2:26 Verse 21; 1 Sam 3:19. Compare Luke 2:20, 52. Note the contrast between the family of Eli and the family of Elkanah. God’s blessing was denied the sons of the high priest and granted to the son of the humble Levite. The most important thing for the blessing of one’s children is not wealth or position or power, but humble faithfulness to God.⚜
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.
2:30 Ex 29:9; Lev 8; 9; Num 16; 17; 25:13. God was not breaking his promise to the house of Aaron. He is saying that because of their sinful behavior the family of Eli would no longer have a part in that ministry. See also Lev 10:1-3. God never breaks His promises (Titus 1:2). But some of His promises are based on conditions, that is, based on the behavior of those to whom the promises are given. Compare Lev 26:3; Deut 28:1-2; Isa 1:19-20.⚜
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.
2:31-35 The sins of Eli and his family must have their consequences. It was too late to change anything. The whole future of this family was to be a sad one because of those sins (Ex 34:7). This was worked out in the death of Eli’s sons (1 Sam 4:11), the destruction of the priests at Nob (1 Sam 22:18-19), and Solomon’s removal of Abiathar from office (1 Kings 2:26-27).⚜
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.’ ”
2:36 God is gracious and long-suffering, but He has His own ways of humbling those who are unfaithful to Him.⚜