1 Samuel 2:27-36

The Voice

Man: This is the message of the Eternal One: “I made Myself known to your family when Israel was enslaved under Pharaoh in Egypt. ²⁸ I chose your ancestor Aaron from among all the tribes of Israel to be My priest: to serve at the altar, to offer incense, and to wear the priestly vest in My presence. And I repaid your family by presenting them with all the offerings made to Me by fire from all the people of Israel. ²⁹ Why do you look with such greedy eyes on all the sacrifices and offerings I have directed the people to bring to My house? Why do you honor your sons more than you honor Me by feasting on the choicest parts of every single offering made by My people Israel?”

³⁰ Therefore the Eternal God of Israel declares: “I promised that your family would go in and out of My presence forever. But now I surely declare, those who honor Me I will honor, but people who choose to despise Me, I, in turn, will consider contemptible: those who hate Me will not matter to Me. ³¹ Look, the time approaches when I will cut away your strength and the strength of your family, so that none of you will live to old age. ³² Then, in agony, you will see all the good things I do for Israel; there will be great distress, and no one in your family will live to old age ever again.

³³ “Any of your family not cut off will grieve continually and will cry their eyes out. All the other members of your household will die violently in the prime of life. ³⁴ The fate of your sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign of the future. Both of them will die on the very same day. ³⁵ I will raise up a faithful priest who will do what I desire and purpose in My heart and mind. I will build him a secure house, and he will go in and out before My anointed one continually. ³⁶ Those of your family who survive will come to him and bow down for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and they will beg him, ‘Please make me a priest so at least I can have a morsel of bread.’”