1 Samuel 2

And she said, My heart has been made firm in the Lord; my horn has been exalted in my God; my mouth has been opened wide against enemies; I have rejoiced in your salvation.

For there is none holy as the Lord, and there is none righteous as our God; there is none holy besides you.

Do not boast, and do not speak lofty things; let no great-sounding speech come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and a God who prepares his own designs.

The bow of the mighty has grown weak, and those who were weak have girded themselves with strength.

Those full of bread have been diminished, and the hungry have forsaken the land; for the barren has borne seven, and she who abounded in children has grown weak.

The Lord kills and makes alive; he brings down to Hades and brings up.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he lifts up.

He raises up the needy from the earth, and from the dunghill he lifts the poor, to seat them with the mighty ones of peoples, granting them a throne of glory as an inheritance.

He grants the vow to the one who vows, and he has blessed the years of the righteous; for a man is not mighty by strength.

The Lord will make his adversary weak; the Lord is holy. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might, and let not the rich man boast in his riches; but let the one who boasts boast in this: to understand and to know the Lord, and to do judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth. The Lord has gone up into the heavens and has thundered; he himself will judge the ends of the earth, and he gives strength to our kings, and he will exalt the horn of his anointed.

And they left him there before the Lord and went away to Armathaim; and the child was ministering to the face of the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest.

And the sons of Eli the priest were pestilent sons; they did not know the Lord.

And this was the priest's due from all the people who sacrificed: the priest's servant boy would come as soon as the meat was boiled, with a three-pronged flesh-hook in his hand,

and he would thrust it into the great cauldron, or into the bronze vessel, or into the pot; whatever came up on the flesh-hook, the priest would take for himself. Thus they did to all Israel, to those who came to sacrifice to the Lord in Selom.

And before the fat was burned as incense, the priest's servant boy would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, Give meat to roast for the priest; I will not take boiled meat from you out of the cauldron.

And the man who was sacrificing would say, Let the fat first be burned as is fitting, and then take for yourself from all that your soul desires. And he would say, No, but you shall give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.

And the sin of the servant boys was very great before the Lord, for they treated the sacrifice of the Lord with contempt.

And Samouel was ministering before the Lord, a child girded with an ephoud bar.

And his mother made him a little double cloak and would bring it up to him from year to year, when she went up with her husband to offer the sacrifice of the days.

And Eli blessed Elkana and his wife, saying, May the Lord repay you seed from this woman in place of the loan that you lent to the Lord. And the man went away to his own place.

And the Lord visited Anna, and she bore three more sons and two daughters. And the child Samouel grew great before the Lord.

And Eli was very old, and he heard the things that his sons were doing to the sons of Israel.

And he said to them, Why do you do according to this matter that I hear from the mouth of all the people of the Lord?

No, my children; for the report that I hear is not good. Do not do so, for the reports that I hear are not good, so that the people do not serve God.

If a man sins against a man, then they will pray for him to the Lord; but if he sins against the Lord, who shall pray for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord fully purposed to destroy them.

And the child Samouel went on and grew great, and was good both with the Lord and with men.

And a man of God came to Eli and said, Thus says the Lord: I indeed revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in the land of Egypt, slaves to the house of Pharao.

And I chose the house of your father out of all the tribes of Israel to serve me as priests, and to go up to my altar, and to burn incense, and to carry an ephoud. And I gave to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel for food.

And why have you looked upon my incense offering and upon my sacrifice with a shameless eye, and have honored your sons above me, that you might bless yourselves from the firstfruits of every sacrifice of Israel before me?

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I said that your house and the house of your father should pass before me forever. But now, says the Lord, far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, and the one who despises me shall be dishonored.

Behold, days are coming when I will utterly destroy your seed and the seed of your father's house.

And you shall not have an old man in my house, all the days.

And I will not utterly destroy for you a man from my altar, so that his eyes may fail and his soul may waste away; and all the rest of your house shall fall by the sword of men.

And this shall be the sign to you that shall come upon these two sons of yours, Ophni and Phinees: in one day they shall both die.

And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build him a faithful house, and he shall pass before my anointed all the days.

And it shall be that everyone who is left in your house shall come to do obeisance to him for an obol of silver, saying, Put me into one of your priestly offices, that I may eat bread.