¹¹ Then Elkanah went to his home at ^(A)Ramah. ^(B)But the boy continued to attend to the service of the Lord before Eli the priest.

The Sin of Eli’s Sons

¹² Now the sons of Eli were ^[a](C)useless men; they did not know the Lord. ^13 (D)And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. ¹⁵ Also, before ^(E)they ^[b]burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.” ¹⁶ And if the man said to him, “They must ^[c]burn the fat ^[d]first, then take as much as ^[e]you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!” ¹⁷ And so the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men ^(F)treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.

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.

²⁷ Then ^(A)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘^(B)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? ^28 (C)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 ^(D)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? ²⁹ Why are you ^[a](E)showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering ^(F)which I have commanded for My ^(G)dwelling, and why are you ^(H)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, ‘^(I)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 ^(J)those who honor Me I will honor, and those ^(K)who despise Me will be insignificant. ³¹ Behold, ^(L)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 ^(M)the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that ^[e]I do for Israel; and there will never be an ^(N)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 ^(O)the sign to you which will come in regard to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^(P)on the same day both of them will die. ³⁵ But ^(Q)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My soul; and ^(R)I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before ^(S)My anointed always.

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, ^(A)I am going to do a thing in Israel, and both ears of everyone who hears about it will ring. ¹² On that day ^(B)I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken in regard to his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For ^(C)I have told him that I am going to judge his house forever for ^(D)the wrongdoing that he knew, because ^(E)his sons were bringing a curse on themselves and ^(F)he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that ^(G)the wrongdoing of Eli’s house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”

¹⁵ So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he ^(H)opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell ^(I)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. ^(J)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 ^[a]everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “^(K)He is the Lord; let Him do ^[b]what seems good to Him.”

Philistines Take the Ark in Victory

4 So the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and they camped beside ^(A)Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped in ^(B)Aphek. ² Then the Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel. When the battle ^[a]spread, Israel was ^[b]defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield. ³ When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “^(C)Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? ^(D)Let’s take the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh, so that He may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” ⁴ So the people sent men to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of armies ^(E)who is enthroned above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.