Eli Rebukes His Sons

²² Now Eli was very old; and he heard about ^(A)everything that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with ^(B)the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. ²³ So he said to them, “Why are you doing such things as these, the evil things that I hear from all these people? ²⁴ No, my sons; for the report is not good ^(C)which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. ²⁵ If one person sins against another, ^(D)God will mediate for him; but ^(E)if a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the ^(F)Lord desired to put them to death.

²⁶ Now the boy ^(G)Samuel was continuing to grow and to be in favor both with the Lord and with people.

²⁷ Then ^(H)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘^(I)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? ^28 (J)Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me? And did I not ^(K)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? ²⁹ Why are you ^[a](L)showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering ^(M)which I have commanded for My ^(N)dwelling, and why are you ^(O)honoring your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the ^[b]choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ ³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares, ‘^(P)I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father was to walk before Me forever’; but now the Lord declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for ^(Q)those who honor Me I will honor, and those ^(R)who despise Me will be insignificant. ³¹ Behold, ^(S)the days are coming when I will eliminate your ^[c]strength and the ^[d]strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³² And you will look at ^(T)the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that ^[e]I do for Israel; and there will never be an ^(U)old man in your house. ³³ Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar, ^[f]so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the ^[g]increase of your house will die ^[h]in the prime of life. ³⁴ And this will be ^(V)the sign to you which will come in regard to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^(W)on the same day both of them will die. ³⁵ But ^(X)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My soul; and ^(Y)I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before ^(Z)My anointed always. ³⁶ And everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him for a ^[i]silver coin or a loaf of bread and say, “Please ^[j]assign me to one of the priest’s offices so that I may eat a piece of bread.”’”

Believers United to Christ

7 Or do you not know, ^(A)brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the ^[a]Law), that the ^[b]Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? ² For ^(B)the married woman is bound by law to her ^[c]husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ^[d]concerning the husband. ³ So then, if while her husband is alive she ^[e]gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she ^[f]gives herself to another man.

⁴ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were ^(C)put to death ^(D)in regard to the Law ^(E)through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were ^(F)in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were ^(G)brought to light by the Law, were at work ^(H)in ^[g]the parts of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been ^(I)released from the Law, having ^(J)died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in ^(K)newness of ^(L)the ^[h]Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

^7 (M)What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^(N)[i]Far from it! On the contrary, ^(O)I would not have come to know sin except ^[j]through the Law; for I would not have known about ^[k]coveting if the Law had not said, “^(P)You shall not ^[l]covet.” ⁸ But sin, ^(Q)taking an opportunity ^(R)through the commandment, produced in me ^[m]coveting of every kind; for ^(S)apart ^[n]from the Law sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart ^[o]from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died; ¹⁰ and this commandment, which was ^[p](T)to result in life, proved ^[q]to result in death for me; ¹¹ for sin, ^(U)taking an opportunity ^(V)through the commandment, ^(W)deceived me, and through it, killed me. ^12 (X)So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? ^[r](Y)Far from it! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by bringing about my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Conflict of Serving Two Masters

¹⁴ For we know that the Law is ^(Z)spiritual, but I am ^(AA)fleshly, ^(AB)sold ^[s](AC)into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For ^(AD)I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing ^(AE)what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with ^(AF)the Law, that the Law is good. ¹⁷ But now, ^(AG)no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my ^(AH)flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For ^(AI)the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I do the very thing I do not want, ^(AJ)I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ I find then ^(AK)the ^[t]principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I joyfully agree with the law of God ^[u]in ^(AL)the inner person, ²³ but I see ^(AM)a different law in ^[v]the parts of my body waging war against the ^(AN)law of my mind, and making me a prisoner ^[w]of ^(AO)the law of sin, the law which is in ^[x]my body’s parts. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from ^[y](AP)the body of this ^(AQ)death? ^25 (AR)Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh ^(AS)the law of sin.

The Prophetic Call to Samuel

3 Now ^(A)the boy Samuel was attending to the service of the Lord before Eli. And ^(B)word from the Lord was rare in those days; ^[a]visions were infrequent.

² But it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now ^(C)his eyesight had begun to be ^[b]poor and he could not see well), ³ and ^(D)the 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, ⁴ that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, “^(E)Here I am.” ⁵ Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. ⁶ And the Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son, go back and lie down.” ^7 (F)Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. ⁸ So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ And 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.

¹⁰ Then the Lord came and stood, and called as at the other times: “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, ^(G)I am going to do a thing in Israel, and both ears of everyone who hears about it will ring. ¹² On that day ^(H)I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken in regard to his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For ^(I)I have told him that I am going to judge his house forever for ^(J)the wrongdoing that he knew, because ^(K)his sons were bringing a curse on themselves and ^(L)he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that ^(M)the wrongdoing of Eli’s house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”

¹⁵ So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he ^(N)opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell ^(O)the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷ He said, “What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. ^(P)May God do the same to you, and more so, if you hide a single word from me of all the words that He spoke to you!” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him ^[c]everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “^(Q)He is the Lord; let Him do ^[d]what seems good to Him.”

¹⁹ Now ^(R)Samuel grew, and ^(S)the Lord was with him, and He ^(T)let none of his words ^[e]fail. ²⁰ And all Israel ^(U)from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. ²¹ And ^(V)the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, ^(W)because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

^22 (A)And when the days for ^[a]their purification according to the Law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “^(B)Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice according to what has been stated in the Law of the Lord: “^(C)A pair of turtledoves or two young doves.”

²⁵ And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was ^(D)righteous and devout, ^(E)looking forward to the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And ^(F)it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not ^(G)see death before he had seen the Lord’s ^[b]Christ. ²⁷ And he came ^[c]by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, ^[d](H)to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, ²⁸ then he took Him in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

³³ And His father and ^(L)mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. ³⁴ And Simeon blessed them and said to ^(M)His mother Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for ^(N)the fall and ^[f]rise of many in Israel, and as a sign to be ^[g]opposed— ³⁵ and a sword will pierce your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

³⁶ And there was a ^(O)prophetess, ^[h]Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of ^(P)the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in ^[i]years ^(Q)and had lived with her husband for seven years after her ^[j]marriage, ³⁷ and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with ^(R)fasts and prayers. ³⁸ And at that very ^[k]moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were ^(S)looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Return to Nazareth

³⁹ And when His parents had completed everything in accordance with the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to ^(T)their own city of Nazareth. ^40 (U)Now the Child continued to grow and to become strong, ^[l]increasing in wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him.

Visit to Jerusalem

⁴¹ His parents went to Jerusalem every year at ^(V)the Feast of the Passover. ⁴² And when He was twelve years old, they went up there according to the custom of the feast; ⁴³ and as they were returning, after spending the ^(W)full number of days required, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but His parents were unaware of it. ⁴⁴ Instead, they thought that He was somewhere in the caravan, and they went a day’s journey; and then they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. ⁴⁵ And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for Him. ⁴⁶ Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ And all who heard Him ^(X)were amazed at His understanding and His answers. ⁴⁸ When Joseph and Mary saw Him, they were bewildered; and ^(Y)His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, ^(Z)Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You!” ⁴⁹ And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that ^(AA)I had to be in My Father’s ^[m]house?” ⁵⁰ And yet ^(AB)they on their part did not understand the statement which He had ^[n]made to them. ⁵¹ And He went down with them and came to ^(AC)Nazareth, and He continued to be subject to them; and ^(AD)His mother ^(AE)treasured all these ^[o]things in her heart.

⁵² And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and ^[p]stature, and in ^(AF)favor with God and people.