1 Samuel 2:10–17

^10*The Lord’s enemies will be destroyed;

he will thunder against them from heaven.

The Lord will judge the whole world;

he will give power to his king,

he will make his chosen king victorious.” ¹¹Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah, but the boy Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served the Lord under the priest Eli.

The Sons of Eli

¹²The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the Lord ¹³or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, ¹⁴he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. ¹⁵In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burnt, the priest’s servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

¹⁶If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest’s servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don’t, I will have to take it by force!”

¹⁷This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the Lord’s sight, because they treated the offerings to the Lord with such disrespect.