1Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart exults in Yahweh; my horn is lifted high in Yahweh. My mouth is opened wide against my enemies, for I rejoice in your salvation.
2There is none holy like Yahweh, for there is none besides you; and there is no Rock like our God.
3Do not multiply talking so very proudly; let no arrogance come out of your mouth. For Yahweh is a God of knowledge, and by him deeds are weighed.
4The bows of the mighty are shattered, but those who stumbled are girded with strength.
5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, while she who had many sons languishes.
6Yahweh puts to death and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7Yahweh makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also lifts up.
8He raises the poor from the dust; from the ash heap he lifts up the needy, to seat them with nobles and to make them inherit a throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s, and on them he has set the world.
9He guards the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked are silenced in darkness; for not by strength does a man prevail.
10Yahweh—those who contend against him are shattered; against them he thunders in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and lift high the horn of his anointed.”
11Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house; and the boy remained ministering to Yahweh before Eli the priest.
12Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know Yahweh.
13And the custom of the priests with the people was this: whenever any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.
14He would thrust it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did to all Israel who came there, to Shiloh.
15Moreover, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat to roast for the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but only raw.”
16And the man would say to him, “Let them first burn the fat, then take for yourself whatever your soul desires,” but he would say to him, “No, you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.”
17So the sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh, for the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt.
18But Samuel was ministering before Yahweh, a boy girded with a linen ephod.
19And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it up to him from year to year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May Yahweh give you offspring from this woman in place of the petition that was asked of Yahweh.” Then they would go to his place.
21For Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of Yahweh.
22Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
23And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil deeds from all these people.
24No, my sons; for the report I hear is not good; you are causing the people of Yahweh to transgress.
25If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for Yahweh desired to put them to death.
26But the boy Samuel continued to grow, and to be in favor both with Yahweh and with men.
27Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh: Did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, belonging to Pharaoh’s house?
28And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before me; and I gave to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel.
29Why then do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering, which I commanded in my dwelling, and honor your sons above me, fattening yourselves from the best of every offering of Israel my people?
30Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, declares: I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever. But now Yahweh declares: Far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31Behold, days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will be no old man in your house.
32And you will look upon a rival in the dwelling, in all that he does good for Israel; and there will never be an old man in your house.
33Yet a man of yours I will not cut off from my altar, to wear out your eyes and to grieve your soul; but all the increase of your house shall die as men.
34And this shall be the sign to you that will come upon your two sons, upon Hophni and Phinehas: on a single day the two of them will die.
35And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will act according to what is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build him a sure house, and he will walk before my anointed all the days.
36And it shall be that everyone left in your house will come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and he will say, ‘Attach me, please, to one of the priestly offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.’
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