1 Samuel 2

The Song of a Woman Whose Prayer Was Answered

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The Prayer of Hannah

2:1She said, “My heart is made firm in the Lord;

my horn is raised high in my God.

My mouth is opened wide against enemies;

I rejoice in Your salvation.

2:2For there is none holy like the Lord, and there is none righteous like our God;

there is none holy besides You.

2:3Do not boast, and do not speak loftily;

let no grandiose speech come from your mouth.

For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and a God who prepares His undertakings.

2:4The bow of the mighty has grown weak, but those who were weak have girded themselves with strength.

2:5Those who were full of bread have been diminished, but the hungry have left the land.

For the barren woman has borne seven, while she who had many children has grown weak.

2:6The Lord puts to death and gives life;

He brings down to Hades and brings up.

2:7The Lord makes poor and makes rich;

He humbles and raises high.

2:8He raises the needy from the earth and lifts the poor from the dung heap, to seat them with rulers of peoples and grant them a throne of glory as their inheritance,

2:9granting a prayer to the one who prays, and He has blessed the years of the righteous one;

for a man is not mighty by strength.

2:10The Lord will weaken His opponent;

the Lord is holy.

Let the wise person not boast in his wisdom, nor the mighty person in his might, nor the rich person in his riches.

Rather, let the one who boasts boast in this: understanding and knowing the Lord, and doing judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth.

The Lord ascended into the heavens and thundered.

He will judge the earth’s extremities, and He gives strength to our kings and will raise high the horn of His anointed.”

The Sons of Eli

2:11They left him there before the Lord and departed to Armathaim, while the child ministered in the Lord’s presence before Eli the priest.

2:12The sons of Eli the priest were pestilent sons who did not know the Lord.

2:13This was the priest’s claimed right from the people, from anyone sacrificing: the priest’s servant would come when the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged meat hook in his hand,

2:14and thrust it into the large cauldron, bronze kettle, or pot. Whatever came up on the meat hook, the priest took for himself. This is what they did to all Israel who came to sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh.

2:15Before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man sacrificing, “Give meat to roast for the priest. I will certainly not take boiled meat from the cauldron from you.”

2:16The man sacrificing would say, “Let the fat first be burned, as is proper, and take for yourself from whatever your soul desires.” But he said, “No! You must give it now; otherwise I will take it by force.”

2:17The servants’ sin was very great before the Lord, for they rejected the Lord’s sacrifice.

Samuel Ministers Before the Lord

2:18Samuel ministered before the Lord, a child girded with an ephoud bar,

2:19His mother made him a little double cloak and would bring it up to him year by year, when she went up with her husband to sacrifice the yearly sacrifice.

2:20Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord repay you with offspring from this woman in return for the loan you made to the Lord.” The man departed to his place,

2:21and the Lord visited Hannah, and she bore three more sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew up before the Lord.

Eli Rebukes His Sons

2:22Eli was very old, and he heard what his sons were doing to the sons of Israel,

2:23He said to them, “Why do you act according to this report that I hear from the mouth of all the Lord’s people?

2:24No, children! The report I hear is not good. Do not act this way, for the reports I hear are not good, so that the people do not serve God.

2:25If a man indeed sins against a man, people will pray for him to the Lord; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” They would not listen to their father’s voice, for the Lord was firmly resolved to destroy them.

2:26The child Samuel continued to grow and was in favor both with the Lord and with people.

The Word Against the House of Eli

2:27A man of God came to Eli and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I clearly revealed Myself to your father’s house when they were in the land of Egypt as slaves to Pharaoh’s house,

2:28and I chose your father’s house from all Israel’s tribes to serve Me as priests, ascend My altar, burn incense, and bear an ephoud. I gave your father’s house all the Israelites’ fire offerings for food.

2:29Why did you look upon My incense and My sacrifice with a shameless eye, and honor your sons more than Me, so that they bless themselves with the firstfruits of every sacrifice of Israel before Me?

2:30Therefore thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: I said that your house and your father’s house would pass before Me forever. But now the Lord says: By no means! I will honor only those who honor Me, and the one who despises Me will be dishonored.

2:31Look, days are coming when I will destroy your offspring and the offspring of your father’s house,

2:32and no old man of yours will be in My house all the days.

2:33Yet I will not destroy every man of yours from My altar, so that his eyes fail and his soul ebbs away. Everyone remaining in your house will fall by the sword of men.

2:34This will be the sign for you that will come upon these two sons of yours, Hophni and Phinehas: both will die in one day.

2:35I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do everything in My heart and in My soul. I will build him a faithful house, and he will pass before My anointed all the days.

2:36The one remaining in your house will come to bow down to him for a silver obol, saying, “Place me in one of your priestly offices, so I may eat bread.”’”

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.