1 Samuel 2
New American Standard Bible
Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving
2 Then Hannah (A)prayed and said,
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
(B)My [a]horn is exalted in the Lord,
My mouth [b]speaks boldly against my enemies,
Because (C)I rejoice in Your salvation.
2 (D)There is no one holy like the Lord,
Indeed, (E)there is no one besides You,
(F)Nor is there any rock like our God.
3 Do not go on [c]boasting so very proudly,
(G)Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
(H)For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
(I)And [d]with Him actions are weighed.
4 (J)The bows of the mighty are broken to pieces,
(K)But those who have stumbled strap on strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,
But those who were hungry cease to be hungry.
(L)Even the infertile woman gives birth to seven,
But (M)she who has many children languishes.
6 (N)The Lord puts to death and makes alive;
(O)He brings down to [e]Sheol and brings up.
7 (P)The Lord makes poor and rich;
(Q)He humbles, He also exalts.
8 (R)He raises the poor from the dust,
(S)He lifts the needy from the garbage heap
(T)To seat them with nobles,
And He gives them a seat of honor as an inheritance;
(U)For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
And He set the world on them.
9 (V)He watches over the feet of His godly ones,
(W)But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness;
(X)For not by might shall a person prevail.
10 (Y)Those who contend with the Lord will be terrified;
(Z)Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
(AA)The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
(AB)And He will give strength to His king,
(AC)And will exalt the [f]horn of His anointed.”
11 Then Elkanah went to his home at (AD)Ramah. (AE)But the boy continued to attend to the service of the Lord before Eli the priest.
The Sin of Eli’s Sons
12 Now the sons of Eli were [g](AF)useless men; they did not know the Lord. 13 (AG)And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before (AH)they [h]burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.” 16 And if the man said to him, “They must [i]burn the fat [j]first, then take as much as [k]you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!” 17 And so the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men (AI)treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.
Samuel before the Lord as a Boy
18 Now (AJ)Samuel was ministering before the Lord, as a boy (AK)wearing a linen ephod. 19 And his mother would make for him a little (AL)robe and bring it up to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer (AM)the yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would (AN)bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the Lord give you [l]children from this woman in place of the [m]one she (AO)requested of the Lord.” And they went to their own [n]home.
21 [o](AP)The Lord indeed visited Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And (AQ)the boy Samuel grew up [p]before the Lord.
Eli Rebukes His Sons
22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard about (AR)everything that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with (AS)the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 23 So he said to them, “Why are you doing such things as these, the evil things that I hear from all these people? 24 No, my sons; for the report is not good (AT)which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. 25 If one person sins against another, (AU)God will mediate for him; but (AV)if a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the (AW)Lord desired to put them to death.
26 Now the boy (AX)Samuel was continuing to grow and to be in favor both with the Lord and with people.
27 Then (AY)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘(AZ)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 28 (BA)Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me? And did I not (BB)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? 29 Why are you [q](BC)showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering (BD)which I have commanded for My (BE)dwelling, and why are you (BF)honoring your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the [r]choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ 30 Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares, ‘(BG)I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father was to walk before Me forever’; but now the Lord declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for (BH)those who honor Me I will honor, and those (BI)who despise Me will be insignificant. 31 Behold, (BJ)the days are coming when I will eliminate your [s]strength and the [t]strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 And you will look at (BK)the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that [u]I do for Israel; and there will never be an (BL)old man in your house. 33 Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar, [v]so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the [w]increase of your house will die [x]in the prime of life. 34 And this will be (BM)the sign to you which will come in regard to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: (BN)on the same day both of them will die. 35 But (BO)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My soul; and (BP)I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before (BQ)My anointed always. 36 And everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him for a [y]silver coin or a loaf of bread and say, “Please [z]assign me to one of the priest’s offices so that I may eat a piece of bread.”’”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 2:1 I.e., strength
- 1 Samuel 2:1 Lit is enlarged
- 1 Samuel 2:3 Lit talk much
- 1 Samuel 2:3 Or disgraceful actions have no place
- 1 Samuel 2:6 I.e., the netherworld
- 1 Samuel 2:10 I.e., strength
- 1 Samuel 2:12 Lit sons of Belial
- 1 Samuel 2:15 Lit offered up in smoke
- 1 Samuel 2:16 Lit offer up in smoke
- 1 Samuel 2:16 Lit as the day
- 1 Samuel 2:16 Lit your soul desires
- 1 Samuel 2:20 Lit seed
- 1 Samuel 2:20 Lit request
- 1 Samuel 2:20 Lit place
- 1 Samuel 2:21 Or When the Lord visited...then she; DSS And the Lord visited
- 1 Samuel 2:21 Lit with
- 1 Samuel 2:29 Lit giving a kick to
- 1 Samuel 2:29 Or first
- 1 Samuel 2:31 Lit arm
- 1 Samuel 2:31 Lit arm
- 1 Samuel 2:32 Lit He does
- 1 Samuel 2:33 Lit to make your eyes fail and to grieve your soul
- 1 Samuel 2:33 I.e., new children
- 1 Samuel 2:33 Lit as men
- 1 Samuel 2:36 Or payment
- 1 Samuel 2:36 Lit attach
1 Samuel 2
Living Bible
2 This was Hannah’s prayer:
“How I rejoice in the Lord!
How he has blessed me!
Now I have an answer for my enemies,
For the Lord has solved my problem.
How I rejoice!
2 No one is as holy as the Lord!
There is no other God,
Nor any Rock like our God.
3 Quit acting so proud and arrogant!
The Lord knows what you have done,
And he will judge your deeds.
4 Those who were mighty are mighty no more!
Those who were weak are now strong.
5 Those who were well are now starving;
Those who were starving are fed.
The barren woman now has seven children;
She with many children has no more!
6 The Lord kills,
The Lord gives life.
7 Some he causes to be poor
And others to be rich.
He cuts one down
And lifts another up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust—
Yes, from a pile of ashes—
And treats them as princes
Sitting in the seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s
And he has set the world in order.
9 He will protect his godly ones,
But the wicked shall be silenced in darkness.
No one shall succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord shall be broken;
He thunders against them from heaven.
He judges throughout the earth.
He gives mighty strength to his king,
And gives great glory to his anointed one.”
11 So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord. 13-14 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. 15 Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.
16 If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,[a]” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”
17 So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.
18 Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.[b] 19 Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice. 20 Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord. 21 And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.
22 Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
23-25 “I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord’s people about what you are doing,” Eli told his sons. “It is an awful thing to make the Lord’s people sin. Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!” But they wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.
26 Little Samuel was growing in two ways—he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone’s favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord’s, too!).
27 One day a prophet[c] came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: “Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt? 28 Didn’t I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe[d] as he served me? And didn’t I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests? 29 Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me—for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!
30 “Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me. 31 I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old. 32 You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days. 33 Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword. 34 And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!
35 “Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever. 36 Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.’”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 2:16 as the law requires, implied.
- 1 Samuel 2:18 a little linen robe just like the priest’s, literally, “a linen ephod.”
- 1 Samuel 2:27 a prophet, literally, “a man of God.”
- 1 Samuel 2:28 a priestly robe, literally, “an ephod.”
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.