1 Samuel 1–28

1ST CHAPTER

Samuel’s Birth

¹There was a man named Elkanah from Ramathaim Zophim in the mountains of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, grandson of Elihu, great-grandson of Tohu, whose father was Zuph from the tribe of Ephraim. ²Elkanah had two wives, one named Hannah, the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. ³Every year this man would go from his own city to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Armies at Shiloh. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served there as priests of the Lord. 

⁴Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he would give portions of it to his wife Peninnah and all her sons and daughters. ⁵He would also give one portion to Hannah because he loved her, even though the Lord had kept her from having children. ⁶Because the Lord had made her unable to have children, her rival ⸤Peninnah⸥ tormented her endlessly in order to make her miserable. ⁷This happened year after year. Whenever Hannah went to the Lord’s house, Peninnah would make her miserable, and Hannah would cry and not eat. ⁸Her husband Elkanah would ask her, “Hannah, why are you crying? Why haven’t you eaten? Why are you so downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” 

⁹One day, after Hannah had something to eat and drink in Shiloh, she got up. (The priest Eli was sitting on a chair by the door of the Lord’s temple.) ¹⁰Though she was resentful, she prayed to the Lord while she cried. ¹¹She made this vow, “Lord of Armies, if you will look at my misery, remember me, and give me a boy, then I will give him to you for as long as he lives. A razor will never be used on his head.” ¹²While Hannah was praying a long time in front of the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth. ¹³She was praying silently. Her voice couldn’t be heard; only her lips were moving. Eli thought she was drunk. 

¹⁴“How long are you going to stay drunk?” Eli asked her. “Get rid of your wine.” 

¹⁵Hannah responded, “No, sir. I’m not drunk. I’m depressed. I’m pouring out my heart to the Lord. ¹⁶Don’t take me to be a good-for-nothing woman. I was praying like this because I’ve been troubled and tormented.” 

¹⁷Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your request.” 

¹⁸“May you continue to be kind to me,” she said. Then the woman went her way and ate. She was no longer sad. 

¹⁹Early in the morning Elkanah and his family got up and worshiped in front of the Lord. Then they returned home to Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel ^[God Hears^[, because she said, “I asked the Lord for him.” 

Samuel’s Childhood

²¹To keep his vow, Elkanah and his entire household again went to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord. ²²But Hannah didn’t go. She told her husband, “I’ll wait until the boy is weaned. Then I’ll bring him and present him to the Lord, and he’ll stay there permanently.” 

²³“Do what you think is best,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Wait until you’ve weaned him. May the Lord keep his word.” The woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. 

²⁴As soon as she had weaned Samuel, she took him with her. She also brought a three-year-old bull,^bhalf a bushel of flour, and a full wineskin. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh while the boy was ⸤still⸥ a child. 

²⁵Then the parents butchered the bull and brought the child to Eli. ²⁶“Sir,” Hannah said, “as sure as you live, I’m the woman who stood here next to you and prayed to the Lord. ²⁷I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request. ²⁸In return, I am giving him to the Lord. He will be dedicated to the Lord for his whole life.” 

And they worshiped the Lord there. 

2ND CHAPTER

Hannah’s Prayer

¹Hannah prayed out loud, 

“My heart finds joy in the Lord. 

My head is lifted to the Lord. 

My mouth mocks my enemies. 

I rejoice because you saved ⸤me⸥. 

²There is no one holy like the Lord. 

There is no one but you, O Lord. 

There is no Rock like our God. 

³“Do not boast 

⸤or⸥ let arrogance come out of your mouth 

because the Lord is a God of knowledge, 

and he weighs ⸤our⸥ actions. 

⁴“The bows of the warriors are broken, 

but those who stumble are armed with strength. 

⁵Those who were well-fed hire themselves out for a piece of bread, 

but those who were hungry hunger no more. 

Even the woman who was childless gives birth to seven children, 

but the mother of many children grieves all alone. 

⁶“The Lord kills, and he gives life. 

He makes ⸤people⸥ go down to the grave, and he raises them up ⸤again⸥. 

⁷The Lord causes poverty and grants wealth. 

He humbles ⸤people⸥; he also promotes them. 

⁸He raises the poor from the dust. 

He lifts the needy from the trash heap 

in order to make them sit with nobles 

and even to make them inherit a glorious throne. 

“The pillars of the earth are the Lord’s. 

He has set the world on them. 

⁹He safeguards the steps of his faithful ones, 

but wicked people are silenced in darkness 

because humans cannot succeed by their own strength. 

¹⁰“Those who oppose the Lord are broken into pieces. 

He thunders at them from the heavens. 

The Lord judges the ends of the earth. 

He gives strength to his King 

and lifts the head of his Messiah.”^a

¹¹Then Elkanah went home to Ramah. But the boy ⸤Samuel⸥ served the Lord under the priest Eli. 

The Sins of Eli’s Sons

¹²Eli’s sons, ⸤Hophni and Phinehas,⸥ were good-for-nothing priests; they had no faith in the Lord. ¹³Now, this was how the priests dealt with the people who were offering sacrifices: While the meat was boiling, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴Then he would stick it into the pot, kettle, cauldron, or pan. Whatever the fork brought up ⸤from the pot⸥ belonged to the priest. This is what the priests did in Shiloh to all the people of Israel who came there ⸤to sacrifice⸥. ¹⁵But ⸤in the case of Eli’s sons,⸥ even before the people burned the fat, their servants would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the meat to the priest to roast. He doesn’t want boiled meat from you. He wants it raw.” 

¹⁶If the man said to the servant, “First let the fat be burned, then take as much as you want,” the servant would say to him, “Give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” ¹⁷The sin of Eli’s sons was a serious matter to the Lord, because these men were treating the offerings made to the Lord with contempt. 

The Faithfulness of Samuel’s Family

¹⁸Meanwhile, Samuel continued to serve in front of the Lord. As a boy he was ⸤already⸥ wearing a linen ephod.^b19His mother would make him a robe and bring it to him every year when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 

²⁰Eli would bless Elkanah (and his wife) and say, “May the Lord give you children from this woman in place of the one which she has given to the Lord.” Then they would go home. 

²¹The Lord came to Hannah. She became pregnant ⸤five times⸥ and had three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in front of the Lord. 

Eli’s Family Condemned

²²Now, Eli was very old, and he had heard everything that his sons were doing to all Israel and that they were sleeping with the women who served at the gate of the tent of meeting. ²³So he asked them, “Why are you doing such things? I hear about your wicked ways from all these people. ²⁴Sons, the report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading isn’t good! ²⁵If one person sins against another, God will take care of him. However, when a person sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” But they wouldn’t listen to their father’s warning—the Lord wanted to kill them. 

²⁶The boy Samuel continued to grow and gained the favor of the Lord and the people. 

²⁷Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: I revealed myself to your ancestors when they were under Pharaoh’s control in Egypt. ²⁸I chose ⸤one of your ancestors⸥ out of all the tribes of Israel to serve as my priest, to sacrifice burnt offerings on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod in my presence. And I gave your ancestors the right to keep portions of the sacrifices that the people of Israel burned on the altar. ²⁹Why do you show no respect for my sacrifices and grain offerings that I have commanded people to make in my dwelling place? Why do you honor your sons more than me by making yourselves fat on the best of all the sacrifices offered by my people Israel? 

³⁰“Therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares: I certainly thought that your family and your father’s family would always live in my presence. 

“But now the Lord declares: I promise that I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be considered insignificant. ³¹The time is coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that no one will grow old in your family. ³²You will see distress in my dwelling place. In spite of the good that I do for Israel, no one in your family will live to an old age. ³³Any man in your family whom I do not remove from my altar will have his eyes fail, and he^cwill be heartbroken. And all your descendants will die in the prime of life. ³⁴What is going to happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you: Both of them will die on the same day. ³⁵Then I will appoint a faithful priest to serve me. He will do everything I want him to do. I will give him faithful descendants, and he will always live as my anointed one. ³⁶Then anyone who is left from your household will bow down in front of him to get a coin or a loaf of bread and say, ‘Please appoint me to one of the priestly classes so that I may eat a piece of bread.’ ” 

3RD CHAPTER

The Lord Calls Samuel

¹The boy Samuel was serving the Lord under Eli. In those days a prophecy from the Lord was rare; visions were infrequent. ²One night Eli was lying down in his room. His eyesight had begun to fail so that he couldn’t see well. ³The lamp in God’s temple^ahadn’t gone out yet, and Samuel was asleep in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God…