Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving

2 Then Hannah ^(A)prayed and said,

¹¹ Then Elkanah went to his home at ^(AD)Ramah. ^(AE)But the boy ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.

The Sin of Eli’s Sons

¹² Now the sons of Eli were ^[f](AF)worthless men; they did not know the Lord ^13 (AG)and the custom of the priests with the people. When any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. Thus they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. ¹⁵ Also, before ^(AH)they 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 boiled meat from you, only raw.” ¹⁶ If the man said to him, “They must surely ^[g]burn the fat ^[h]first, and then take as much as ^[i]you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” ¹⁷ Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men ^(AI)despised the offering of the Lord.

Samuel before the Lord as a Boy

¹⁸ Now ^(AJ)Samuel was ministering before the Lord, as a boy ^[j](AK)wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹ And his mother would make him a little ^(AL)robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer ^(AM)the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰ Then Eli would ^(AN)bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the Lord give you ^[k]children from this woman in place of ^[l]the one she ^(AO)dedicated to the Lord.” And they went to their own ^[m]home.

^21 (AP)The Lord visited Hannah; and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And ^(AQ)the boy Samuel grew before the Lord.

Eli Rebukes His Sons

²² Now Eli was very old; and he heard ^(AR)all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with ^(AS)the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. ²³ He said to them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? ²⁴ No, my sons; for the report is not good ^(AT)which I hear ^[n]the Lord’s people circulating. ²⁵ If one man sins against another, ^(AU)God will mediate for him; but ^(AV)if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the ^(AW)Lord desired to put them to death.

²⁶ Now the boy ^(AX)Samuel ^[o]was growing in stature and in favor both with the Lord and with men.

²⁷ Then ^(AY)a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘^(AZ)Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? ^28 (BA)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 ^(BB)give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? ²⁹ Why do you ^(BC)kick at My sacrifice and at My offering ^(BD)which I have commanded in My ^(BE)dwelling, and ^(BF)honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the ^[p]choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ ³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares, ‘^(BG)I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever’; but now the Lord declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for ^(BH)those who honor Me I will honor, and those ^(BI)who despise Me will be lightly esteemed. ³¹ Behold, ^(BJ)the days are coming when I will break your ^[q]strength and the ^[r]strength of your father’s house so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³² You will see ^(BK)the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that ^[s]I do for Israel; and an ^(BL)old man will not be in your house forever. ³³ Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar ^[t]so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die ^[u]in the prime of life. ³⁴ This will be ^(BM)the sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^(BN)on the same day both of them will die. ³⁵ But ^(BO)I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and ^(BP)I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before ^(BQ)My anointed always. ³⁶ Everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a ^[v]piece of silver or a loaf of bread and say, “Please ^[w]assign me to one of the priest’s offices so that I may eat a piece of bread.”’”

The Prophetic Call to Samuel

3 Now ^(BR)the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And ^(BS)word from the Lord was rare in those days, ^[x]visions were infrequent.

² It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now ^(BT)his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well), ³ and ^(BU)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, “^(BV)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, lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶ The Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he ^[y]answered, “I did not call, my son, lie down again.” ^7 (BW)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 arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned 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 other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” ¹¹ The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, ^(BX)I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. ¹² In that day ^(BY)I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For ^(BZ)I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for ^(CA)the iniquity which he knew, because ^(CB)his sons brought a curse on themselves and ^(CC)he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that ^(CD)the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

¹⁵ So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he ^(CE)opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell ^(CF)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. ^(CG)May God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the words that He spoke to you.” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “^(CH)It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

¹⁹ Thus ^(CI)Samuel grew and ^(CJ)the Lord was with him and ^(CK)let none of his words ^[z]fail. ²⁰ All Israel ^(CL)from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. ²¹ And ^(CM)the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, ^(CN)because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

Philistines Take the Ark in Victory

4 Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped beside ^(CO)Ebenezer while the Philistines camped in ^(CP)Aphek. ² The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was ^[aa]defeated before the Philistines who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield. ³ When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “^(CQ)Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? ^(CR)Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that ^[ab]it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.” ⁴ So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts ^(CS)who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵ As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, ^(CT)all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded. ⁶ When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. ⁷ The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” And they said, “^(CU)Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. ⁸ Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. ^9 (CV)Take courage and be men, O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, ^(CW)as they have been slaves to you; therefore, be men and fight.”

¹⁰ So the Philistines fought and ^(CX)Israel was ^[ac]defeated, and ^(CY)every man fled to his tent; and the slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹ And the ark of God was taken; and ^(CZ)the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

¹² Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with ^(DA)his clothes torn and ^[ad]dust on his head. ¹³ When he came, behold, ^(DB)Eli was sitting on his seat ^[ae]by the road eagerly watching, because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. So the man came to tell it in the city, and all the city cried out. ¹⁴ When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the noise of this commotion mean?” Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli. ¹⁵ Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and ^(DC)his eyes were set so that he could not see. ¹⁶ The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today.” And he said, “^(DD)How did things go, my son?” ¹⁷ Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken.” ¹⁸ When he mentioned the ark of God, ^[af](DE)Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for ^[ag]he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹ Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. ²⁰ And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “^(DF)Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention. ²¹ And she called the boy ^[ah]Ichabod, saying, “^(DG)The glory has departed from Israel,” because ^(DH)the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²² She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken.”

Mary Anoints Jesus

12 ^(A)Jesus, therefore, six days before ^(B)the Passover, came to ^(C)Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² So they made Him a supper there, and ^(D)Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. ^3 (E)Mary then took a ^[a]pound of very costly ^(F)perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴ But ^(G)Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to ^[b]betray Him, *said, ⁵ “Why was this perfume not sold for ^[c]three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” ⁶ Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he ^(H)had the money box, he used to pilfer ^(I)what was put into it. ⁷ Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep ^[d]it for ^(J)the day of My burial. ^8 (K)For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

⁹ The ^(L)large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, ^(M)whom He raised from the dead. ¹⁰ But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; ¹¹ because ^(N)on account of him ^(O)many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

¹² On the next day ^(P)the large crowd who had come to ^(Q)the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³ took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “^(R)Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the ^(S)King of Israel.” ¹⁴ Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, ¹⁵ “^(T)Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” ^16 (U)These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus ^(V)was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. ¹⁷ So ^(W)the ^[e]people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. ^18 (X)For this reason also the ^[f]people went and met Him, ^(Y)because they heard that He had performed this ^[g]sign. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

Greeks Seek Jesus

²⁰ Now there were some ^(Z)Greeks among those who were going up to worship at ^(AA)the feast; ²¹ these then came to ^(AB)Philip, who was from ^(AC)Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip *came and *told ^(AD)Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus. ²³ And Jesus *answered them, saying, “^(AE)The hour has come for the Son of Man to ^(AF)be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(AG)unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ^25 (AH)He who loves his ^[h]life loses it, and he who ^(AI)hates his ^[i]life in this world will keep it to life eternal. ²⁶ If anyone ^[j]serves Me, he must follow Me; and ^(AJ)where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone ^[k]serves Me, the Father will ^(AK)honor him.

Jesus Foretells His Death

²⁷ “^(AL)Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘^(AM)Father, save Me from ^(AN)this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ^28 (AO)Father, glorify Your name.” Then a ^(AP)voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” ²⁹ So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “^(AQ)An angel has spoken to Him.” ³⁰ Jesus answered and said, “^(AR)This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. ^31 (AS)Now judgment is upon this world; now ^(AT)the ruler of this world will be cast out. ³² And I, if I ^(AU)am lifted up from the earth, will ^(AV)draw all men to Myself.” ³³ But He was saying this ^(AW)to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. ³⁴ The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of ^(AX)the Law that ^[l](AY)the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The ^(AZ)Son of Man must be ^(BA)lifted up’? Who is this ^(BB)Son of Man?” ³⁵ So Jesus said to them, “^(BC)For a little while longer ^(BD)the Light is among you. ^(BE)Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who ^(BF)walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. ³⁶ While you have the Light, ^(BG)believe in the Light, so that you may become ^(BH)sons of Light.”

These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and ^[m](BI)hid Himself from them. ³⁷ But though He had performed so many ^[n]signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. ³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “^(BJ)Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” ³⁹ For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, ⁴⁰ “^(BK)He has blinded their eyes and He ^(BL)hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and ^[o]be converted and I heal them.” ⁴¹ These things Isaiah said because ^(BM)he saw His glory, and ^(BN)he spoke of Him. ⁴² Nevertheless ^(BO)many even of ^(BP)the rulers believed in Him, but ^(BQ)because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be ^[p](BR)put out of the synagogue; ^43 (BS)for they loved the ^[q]approval of men rather than the ^[r]approval of God.

⁴⁴ And Jesus cried out and said, “^(BT)He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. ^45 (BU)He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. ^46 (BV)I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. ⁴⁷ If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for ^(BW)I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ^48 (BX)He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; ^(BY)the word I spoke is what will judge him at ^(BZ)the last day. ^49 (CA)For I did not speak ^[s]on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me ^(CB)has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. ⁵⁰ I know that ^(CC)His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak ^(CD)just as the Father has told Me.”