1 Samuel 1-3

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, named Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

² He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

³ This man went from his city year by year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were the Lord’s priests.

⁴ When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give to Peninnah his wife and all her sons and daughters portions [of the sacrificial meat].

⁵ But to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had given her no children.

⁶ [This embarrassed and grieved Hannah] and her rival provoked her greatly to vex her, because the Lord had left her childless.

⁷ So it was year after year; whenever Hannah went up to the Lord’s house, Peninnah provoked her, so she wept and did not eat.

⁸ Then Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, why do you cry? And why do you not eat? And why are you grieving? Am I not more to you than ten sons?

⁹ So Hannah rose after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat beside a post of the temple (tent) of the Lord.

¹⁰ And [Hannah] was in distress of soul, praying to the Lord and weeping bitterly.

¹¹ She vowed, saying, O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid and [earnestly] remember, and not forget Your handmaid but will give me a son, I will give him to the Lord all his life; no razor shall touch his head.

¹² And as she continued praying before the Lord, Eli noticed her mouth.

¹³ Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.

¹⁴ Eli said to her, How long will you be intoxicated? Put wine away from you.

¹⁵ But Hannah answered, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I was pouring out my soul before the Lord.^(A)

¹⁶ Regard not your handmaid as a wicked woman; for out of my great complaint and bitter provocation I have been speaking.

¹⁷ Then Eli said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.

¹⁸ Hannah said, Let your handmaid find grace in your sight. So [she] went her way and ate, her countenance no longer sad.

¹⁹ The family rose early the next morning, worshiped before the Lord, and returned to their home in Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.

²⁰ Hannah became pregnant and in due time bore a son and named him Samuel [heard of God], Because, she said, I have asked him of the Lord.

²¹ And Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow.

²² But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I will not go until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there as long as he lives.

²³ Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word. So Hannah remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.

²⁴ When she had ^[a]weaned him, she took him with her, with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin bottle of wine [to pour over the burnt offering for a sweet odor], and brought Samuel to the Lord’s house in Shiloh. The child was growing.

²⁵ Then they slew the bull, and brought the child to Eli.

²⁶ Hannah said, Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord.

²⁷ For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted my petition made to Him.

²⁸ Therefore I have given him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is given to the Lord. And they worshiped the Lord there.

2 Hannah prayed, and said, My heart exults and triumphs in the Lord; my horn (my strength) is lifted up in the Lord. My mouth is no longer silent, for it is opened wide over my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.

² There is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides You; there is no Rock like our God.

³ Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance go forth from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

⁴ The bows of the mighty are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.

⁵ Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children languishes and is forlorn.

⁶ The Lord slays and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

⁷ The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and He lifts up.

⁸ He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts up the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with nobles and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.

⁹ He will guard the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked shall be silenced and perish in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.

¹⁰ The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them will He thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge [all peoples] to the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to ^[b]His king (King) and exalt the power of His anointed (Anointed ^[c]His Christ).^(B)

¹¹ Elkanah and his wife Hannah returned to Ramah to his house. But the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.

¹² The sons of Eli were base and worthless; they did not know or regard the Lord.

¹³ And the custom of the priests with the people was this: when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the flesh was boiling with a fleshhook of three prongs in his hand;

¹⁴ And he thrust it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh with all the Israelites who came there.

¹⁵ Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came and said to the man who sacrificed, Give the priest meat to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.

¹⁶ And if the man said to him, Let them burn the fat first, and then you may take as much as you want, the priest’s servant would say, No! Give it to me now or I will take it by force.

¹⁷ So the sin of the [two] young men was very great before the Lord, for they despised the offering of the Lord.

¹⁸ But Samuel ministered before the Lord, a child girded with a linen ephod.

¹⁹ Moreover, his mother made him a little robe and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

²⁰ And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, May the Lord give you children by this woman for the gift she asked for and gave to the Lord. Then they would go to their own home.

²¹ And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she bore three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord.

²² Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

²³ And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people.

²⁴ No, my sons; it is no good report which I hear the Lord’s people spreading abroad.

²⁵ If one man wrongs another, God will mediate for him; but if a man wrongs the Lord, who shall intercede for him? Yet they did not listen to their father, for it was the Lord’s will to slay them.

²⁶ Now the boy Samuel grew and was in favor both with the Lord and with men.

²⁷ A man of God came to Eli and said to him, Thus has the Lord said: I plainly revealed Myself to the house of your father [forefather Aaron] when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house.

²⁸ Moreover, I selected him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer on My altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before Me. And I gave [from then on] to the house of your father [forefather] all the offerings of the Israelites made by fire.

²⁹ Why then do you kick [trample upon, treat with contempt] My sacrifice and My offering which I commanded, and honor your sons above Me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest part of every offering of My people Israel?

³⁰ Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, I did promise that your house and that of your father [forefather Aaron] should go in and out before Me forever. But now the Lord says, Be it far from Me. For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

³¹ Behold, the time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your own father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.

³² And you shall behold the distress of My house, even in all the prosperity which God will give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

³³ Yet I will not cut off from My altar every man of yours; some shall survive to weep and mourn [over the family’s ruin], but all the increase of your house shall die in their best years.^(C)

³⁴ And what befalls your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be a sign to you—in one day they both shall die. [Fulfilled in I Sam. 4:17, 18.]

³⁵ And I will raise up for Myself a ^[d]faithful priest (Priest), who shall do according to what is in My heart and mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed (Anointed) forever.^(D)

³⁶ Everyone who is left in your house shall come crouching to him for a piece of silver and a bit of bread and say, Put me, I pray you, into a priest’s office so I may have a piece of bread.

3 Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. The word of the Lord was rare and precious in those days; there was no frequent or widely spread vision.

² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had dimmed so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place.

³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was lying down

⁴ When the Lord called, Samuel! And he answered, Here I am.

⁵ He ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Eli said, I did not call you; lie down again. So he went and lay down.

⁶ And the Lord called again, Samuel! And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I; you did call me. Eli answered, I did not call, my son; lie down again.

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord was not yet revealed to him.

⁸ And the Lord called Samuel the third time. And he went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you did call me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.

⁹ So Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down. And if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel! Samuel! Then Samuel answered, Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.

¹¹ The Lord told Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of all who hear it shall tingle.

¹² On that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.

¹³ And I [now] announce to him that I will judge and punish his house forever for the iniquity of which he knew, for his sons were bringing a curse upon themselves [blaspheming God], and he did not restrain them.

¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for or purged with sacrifice or offering forever.

¹⁵ Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. And [he] was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.

¹⁶ But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here I am.

¹⁷ Eli said, What is it He told you? Pray do not hide it from me. May God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that He said to you.

¹⁸ And Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing. And Eli said, It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.

¹⁹ Samuel grew; the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.^(E)

²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

²¹ And the Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh through the word of the Lord.