1 Samuel 3–4

Chapter 3

The Prophetic Call to Samuel

¹Now ^athe boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And ^bword from the Lord was rare in those days, ¹visions were infrequent.

²It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now ^ahis eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well),

³and ^athe lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was,

⁴that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, “^aHere I am.”

⁵Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

⁶The Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he ¹answered, “I did not call, my son, lie down again.”

^7aNow Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.

⁸So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy.

⁹And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

¹¹The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, ^aI am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.

¹²“In that day ^aI will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.

¹³“For ^aI have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for ^bthe iniquity which he knew, because ^chis sons brought a curse on themselves and ^dhe did not rebuke them.

¹⁴“Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that ^athe iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

¹⁵So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he ^aopened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell ^bthe vision to Eli.

¹⁶Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.”

¹⁷He said, “What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. ^aMay God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the words that He spoke to you.”

¹⁸So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “^aIt is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

¹⁹Thus ^aSamuel grew and ^bthe Lord was with him and ^clet none of his words ¹fail.

²⁰All Israel ^afrom Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.

²¹And ^athe Lord appeared again at Shiloh, ^bbecause the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

Chapter 4

Philistines Take the Ark in Victory

¹Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped beside ^aEbenezer while the Philistines camped in ^bAphek.

²The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was ¹defeated before the Philistines who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

³When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “^aWhy has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? ^bLet us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that ¹it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts ^awho sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, ^aall Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.

⁶When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp.

⁷The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” And they said, “^aWoe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

⁸“Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

⁹“^aTake courage and be men, O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, ^bas they have been slaves to you; therefore, be men and fight.”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought and ^aIsrael was ¹defeated, and ^bevery man fled to his tent; and the slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.

¹¹And the ark of God was taken; and ^athe two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

¹²Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with ^ahis clothes torn and ¹dust on his head.

¹³When he came, behold, ^aEli was sitting on his seat ¹by the road eagerly watching, because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. So the man came to tell it in the city, and all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the noise of this commotion mean?” Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli.

¹⁵Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and ^ahis eyes were set so that he could not see.

¹⁶The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today.” And he said, “^aHow did things go, my son?”

¹⁷Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken.”

¹⁸When he mentioned the ark of God, ^1aEli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for ²he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.

²⁰And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “^aDo not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention.

²¹And she called the boy ¹Ichabod, saying, “^aThe glory has departed from Israel,” because ^bthe ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

²²She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken.”