the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Read the Bible
Hebrew Names Version
1 Samuel 2
1 Hannah prayed, and said: My heart exults in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation. 2 There is none holy as the LORD; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock like our God. 3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth; For the LORD is a God of knowledge, By him actions are weighed. 4 The bows of the mighty men are broken; Those who stumbled are girded with strength. 5 Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread; Those who were hungry have ceased [to hunger]: Yes, the barren has borne seven; She who has many children languishes. 6 The LORD kills, and makes alive: He brings down to She'ol, and brings up. 7 The LORD makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up. 8 He raises up the poor out of the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, Inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the eretz are the LORD's, He has set the world on them. 9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones; But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail. 10 Those who strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces; Against them will he thunder in the sky: The LORD will judge the ends of the eretz; He will give strength to his king, Exalt the horn of his anointed.
11 Elkana went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to the LORD before `Eli the Kohen. 12 Now the sons of `Eli were base men; they didn't know the LORD. 13 The custom of the Kohanim with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the Kohen's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand; 14 and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the Kohen took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Yisra'elites who came there. 15 Yes, before they burnt the fat, the Kohen's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the Kohen; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw. 16 If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force. 17 The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men despised the offering of the LORD. 18 But Shemu'el ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen efod. 19 Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 `Eli blessed Elkana and his wife, and said, the LORD give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD. They went to their own home. 21 The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Shemu'el grew before the LORD. 22 Now `Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Yisra'el, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting. 23 He said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people. 24 No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make the LORD's people to disobey. 25 If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD was minded to kill them. 26 The child Shemu'el grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD, and also with men.
27 There came a man of God to `Eli, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Mitzrayim [in bondage] to Par`oh's house? 28 and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Yisra'el to be my Kohen, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an efod before me? and did I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Yisra'el made by fire? 29 Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in [my] habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Yisra'el my people? 30 Therefore the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now the LORD says, Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house. 32 You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Yisra'el; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33 The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age. 34 This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hofni and Pinechas: in one day they shall die both of them. 35 I will raise me up a faithful Kohen, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever. 36 It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me into one of the Kohanim' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
