1 Samuel 2:12-26

Living Bible

¹² Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord. ^13-14 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. ¹⁵ Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.

¹⁶ If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,^[a]” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.

¹⁸ Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.^{[b] 19} Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice. ²⁰ Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord. ²¹ And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.

²² Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

^23-25 “I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord’s people about what you are doing,” Eli told his sons. “It is an awful thing to make the Lord’s people sin. Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!” But they wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.

²⁶ Little Samuel was growing in two ways—he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone’s favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord’s, too!).