1 Samuel 2:12-26

Easy-to-Read Version

Eli’s Evil Sons

¹² Eli’s sons were evil men who did not care about the Lord. ¹³ They did not care about how priests were supposed to treat people. Whenever someone brings a sacrifice, priests are supposed to put the meat in a pot of boiling water. Then their servant is supposed to get the three-pronged fork ¹⁴ and use it to get some meat out of the pot or kettle. The priest is supposed to take whatever his helper removes from the pot with the special fork. This is what the priests should have done for the Israelites who came to offer sacrifices at Shiloh. ¹⁵ But that is not what the sons of Eli did. Even before the fat was burned on the altar, their servant would go to the people offering sacrifices and say, “Give the priest some meat to roast. The priest won’t accept boiled meat from you.”

¹⁶ Maybe the man offering the sacrifice would say, “Burn the fat^[a] first, and then you can take whatever you want.” But the servant would answer: “No, give me the meat now. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it from you!”

¹⁷ In this way Hophni and Phinehas showed that they did not respect the offerings made to the Lord. This was a terrible sin against the Lord.

¹⁸ But Samuel served the Lord. He was a helper who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹ Every year Samuel’s mother made a robe for Samuel. She took the little robe to Samuel when she went up to Shiloh with her husband for the sacrifice every year.

²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife. He would say, “May the Lord give you more children through Hannah who will take the place of the boy she prayed for and gave to the Lord.”

Elkanah and Hannah went home. ²¹ The Lord was kind to Hannah, and she had three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the holy place near the Lord.

Eli Fails to Control His Evil Sons

²² Eli was very old. He heard about the bad things his sons were doing to the Israelites at Shiloh and how his sons were having sexual relations with the women who served at the door of the Meeting Tent.

²³ Eli said to his sons, “The people here told me about the evil things you have done. Why are you doing such things? ²⁴ Sons, stop that! The Lord’s people are saying bad things about you. ²⁵ If you sin against other people, God might protect you. But who can help you if you sin against the Lord?”

Eli’s sons refused to listen to him, so the Lord decided to kill them.

²⁶ The boy Samuel kept growing. He was pleasing to the Lord and to the people.