As if the man of God’s scathing prophecy was not devastating enough, the narrator moves immediately to another story in which Eli gets the same message from another prophet, but this time the messenger is a “boy of God”—his own young associate, Samuel. In order to accomplish this, however, the author must first describe how it came about that a message from Yahweh should be entrusted to the young apprentice. The writer sets the stage with a reminder that the boy Samuel was