1 Hannah prayed, and said:
My heart exults in Yahweh;
My horn is exalted in Yahweh;
My mouth is enlarged over my enemies;
Because I rejoice in your salvation.
2 There is none holy as Yahweh;
For there is none besides you,
Neither is there any rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly;
Don’t let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For Yahweh is a God of knowledge,
By him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty men are broken;
Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
5 Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread;
Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger:
Yes, the barren has borne seven;
She who has many children languishes.
6 Yahweh kills, and makes alive:
He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.
7 Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich:
He brings low, he also lifts up.
8 He raises up the poor out of the dust,
He lifts up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes,
Inherit the throne of glory:
For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s,
He has set the world on them.
9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones;
But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness;
For by strength shall no man prevail.
10 Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces;
Against them will he thunder in the sky:
Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth;
He will give strength to his king,
Exalt the horn of his anointed.
11 Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Yahweh
before Eli the priest. 12 Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn’t
know Yahweh. 13 The custom of the priests with the people was that when
any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was
boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand; 14 and he struck it
into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought
up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who
came there. 15 Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came,
and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for
he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw. 16 If the man said to him,
They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul
desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I
will take it by force. 17 The sin of the young men was very great before
Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh. 18 But Samuel
ministered before Yahweh, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
19 Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from
year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly
sacrifice. 20 Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Yahweh give you
seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh. They went to
their own home. 21 Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore
three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh. 22 Now
Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how
that they lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting.
23 He said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil
dealings from all this people. 24 No, my sons; for it is no good report
that I hear: you make Yahweh’s people to disobey. 25 If one man sin
against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who
shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of
their father, because Yahweh was minded to kill them. 26 The child Samuel
grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men.
27 There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Did
I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in
bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 28 and did I choose him out of all the
tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to
wear an ephod before me? and did I give to the house of your father all the
offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? 29 Why kick you at
my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my
habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the
best of all the offerings of Israel my people? 30 Therefore Yahweh, the
God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your
father, should walk before me forever: but now Yahweh says, Be it far from
me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be
lightly esteemed. 31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm,
and the arm of your father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in
your house. 32 You shall see the affliction of my habitation, in
all the wealth which God shall give Israel; and there shall not be an
old man in your house forever. 33 The man of yours, whom I shall
not cut off from my altar, shall be to consume your eyes, and to
grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower
of their age. 34 This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your
two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.
35 I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that
which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and
he shall walk before my anointed forever. 36 It shall happen, that
everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece
of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me into one of the
priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
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