1 Samuel 3

Samuel’s First Encounter with Yahweh

3Now the boy Samuel was serving Yahweh in the presence^a of Eli. The word of Yahweh was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. ²And then^b one day when Eli was lying in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak so that he was not able to see) ³and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, Samuel was lying in the temple^c of Yahweh where the ark of God was. ⁴Then Yahweh called out to Samuel and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, because you called me.” But he said, “I did not call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. ⁶And Yahweh called Samuel again, so Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, because you called me.” And he said, “I did not call you, my son. Go back and lie down.” ⁷Now Samuel did not yet know Yahweh, and the word of Yahweh had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸Again Yahweh called Samuel a third time, so he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, because you called me.” Then Eli realized that Yahweh was calling the boy. ⁹So Eli said to Samuel “Go lie down. If he calls^d to you, then you must say, ‘Speak Yahweh, because your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰Then Yahweh came and stood there and called out as before,^e “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, because your servant is listening.” ¹¹So Yahweh said to Samuel, “Look, I am doing something in Israel which will cause^f the two ears of everyone who hears it to tingle. ¹²On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken against his household, from beginning to end.^{g 13}I will make him know that I am about to judge his household forever because of the iniquity that he knew, for his sons were bringing curses on themselves,^h but he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴Therefore I swore to the house of Eli that the iniquity of the house of Eli would not be atoned forⁱ by sacrifice or by offering forever.”

¹⁵So Samuel lay down until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of Yahweh, but Samuel was afraid of telling the vision to Eli. ¹⁶Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷And he said, “What is the message^j that he spoke to you? Please do not conceal it from me. May God punish you severely^k if you conceal anything from me of all the words that he told you.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him all the words and did not conceal anything from him. And he^l said, “He is Yahweh, he will do what is^m good in his sight.”ⁿ

¹⁹And Samuel grew up, and Yahweh was with him. He did not allow any of his prophecies to go unfulfilled.^{o 20}All Israel from Dan to Beersheba realized that Samuel was faithful^p as a prophet to Yahweh. ²¹And Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh, for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh through the word of Yahweh.