24 After Saul’s return from his battle with the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of Engedi; ² so he took three thousand special troops and went to search for him among the rocks and wild goats of the desert. ³ At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to go to the bathroom, but as it happened, David and his men were hiding in the cave!

⁴ “Now’s your time!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today is the day the Lord was talking about when he said, ‘I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish’!” Then David crept forward and quietly slit off the bottom of Saul’s robe! ⁵ But then his conscience began bothering him.

⁶ “I shouldn’t have done it,” he said to his men. “It is a serious sin to attack God’s chosen king in any way.”

^7-8 These words of David persuaded his men not to kill Saul.

After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, David came out and shouted after him, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.

^9-10 Then he shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? This very day you have seen it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm him—he is the Lord’s chosen king.’ ¹¹ See what I have in my hand? It is the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you! Doesn’t this convince you that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for my life?

¹² “The Lord will decide between us. Perhaps he will kill you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you. ¹³ As that old proverb says, ‘Wicked is as wicked does,’ but despite your wickedness, I’ll not touch you. ¹⁴ And who is the king of Israel trying to catch, anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a flea? ¹⁵ May the Lord judge as to which of us is right and punish whichever one of us is guilty. He is my lawyer and defender, and he will rescue me from your power!”

¹⁶ Saul called back, “Is it really you, my son David?” Then he began to cry. ¹⁷ And he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil. ¹⁸ Yes, you have been wonderfully kind to me today, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you didn’t kill me. ¹⁹ Who else in all the world would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today. ²⁰ And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and Israel shall be yours to rule. ²¹ Oh, swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!”

²² So David promised, and Saul went home, but David and his men went back to their cave.

2 This was Hannah’s prayer:

¹¹ So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.

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!).

²⁷ One day a prophet^[c] came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: “Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt? ²⁸ Didn’t I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe^[d] as he served me? And didn’t I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests? ²⁹ Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me—for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!

³⁰ “Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me. ³¹ I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old. ³² You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days. ³³ Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword. ³⁴ And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!

³⁵ “Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever. ³⁶ Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.’”