¹² Now Eli’s sons were ·evil men [scoundrels; good-for-nothings]; they did not ·care about [know; respect; regard] the Lord. ¹³ ·This is what the priests would normally do to [… nor about their duties as priests for] the people: Every time someone ·brought [offered] a sacrifice, the meat would be ·cooked [^Lboiled] in a pot. The priest’s servant would then come carrying a fork that had three prongs. ¹⁴ He would plunge the fork into the pot or the kettle or cauldron or pan. Whatever the fork brought out of the pot belonged to the priest. But this is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh [1:3] to offer sacrifices. ¹⁵ Even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come to the person offering sacrifices and say, “Give the priest some meat to roast. He won’t accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

¹⁶ If the one who offered the sacrifice said, “Let the fat be burned up first as usual, and then take anything you want,” the priest’s servant would answer, “No, give me the meat now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ ·The Lord saw that [In the Lord’s sight] the sin of the servants was very ·great [serious] because they ·did not show respect for [treated with contempt; despised] the offerings ·made to [^Lof] the Lord.