1 Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is raised high by the LORD. My mouth is wide open against my enemies, since I delight in your salvation.
2 No one is holy as the LORD is, for there is no one but you; no rock is like our God.
3 Stop your proud talk, piling it on; let no arrogance leave your mouth, for a God who knows is the LORD, and by him deeds are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty are shattered, while the stumbling are wrapped in strength.
5 The well-fed hire themselves out for bread, and the hungry hunger no more. The barren gives birth to seven, and the mother of many pines away.
6 The LORD kills and gives life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he humbles and he exalts.
8 He lifts the poor up out of the dust; from the dung heap he raises the needy, to have them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of glory. The pillars of the earth belong to the LORD; he has set the world upon them.
9 The feet of his faithful ones he will keep, but the wicked will be silenced in the dark, for it is not by might that a man prevails.
10 Those who contend with the LORD will be broken to pieces; from the heavens he will thunder upon them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and lift high the horn of his anointed."
11 Elkanah went home to Ramah, and the boy served the LORD under Eli the priest.
12 The sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they did not know the LORD.
13 This was how the priests dealt with the people: when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was cooking, holding a three-pronged fork,
14 and stab it into the basin, the kettle, the caldron or the pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took for himself. That is how they treated all Israel who came there to Shiloh.
15 Even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and tell the man sacrificing, "Hand over meat for the priest to roast; he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw."
16 If the man said to him, "The fat must be burned first; then take whatever you like," he would say, "No, give it now, or I will take it by force."
17 The young men's sin was very great in the LORD's sight, because the men treated the LORD's offering with scorn.
18 Samuel, meanwhile, was serving before the LORD, a boy wearing a linen ephod.
19 His mother would make him a small robe and bring it to him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "May the LORD give you offspring by this woman in place of the one she asked for and gave over to the LORD." Then they would go back home.
21 The LORD visited Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up with the LORD.
22 Eli was very old. He kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
23 He said to them, "Why are you doing such things? I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people.
24 No, my sons, the report I hear is not good; you are making the LORD's people transgress.
25 If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will plead for him?" Yet they would not listen to their father's voice, for the LORD was minded to put them to death.
26 The boy Samuel went on growing in stature and in favor, both with the LORD and with men.
27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Did I not plainly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt, belonging to the house of Pharaoh?
28 I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense and to wear an ephod before me; and to your father's house I gave all the food offerings of the children of Israel.
29 Why do you trample on my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling? You honor your sons more than me, making yourselves fat on the best of every offering of Israel my people.'
30 So the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I did say that your house and your father's house would walk before me for ever.' But now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, and those who scorn me will be treated as nothing.
31 The days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that no one in your house will reach old age.
32 You will look on distress in my dwelling, in all the good that he does for Israel, and never will there be an old man in your house.
33 Any of yours I do not cut off from my altar will be left to wear out your eyes and grieve your soul, and all the offspring of your house will die as grown men.
34 This will be your sign, what comes upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on a single day both of them will die.
35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will act according to what is in my heart and my soul. I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before my anointed for ever.
36 Everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a bit of silver and a round of bread, and will say, "Please put me in one of the priestly posts, so I can eat a scrap of bread."'"