1 Samuel 2
1 Then Hannah prayed, saying, “I rejoice in [what] you, [, have done]. I am strong [MET] because I belong to you. I (laugh at/ridicule) my enemies, because you, Yahweh have rescued me [from being taunted by them].
Hannah prayed, and said: "My heart exults in the LORD. My horn is exalted in my God. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.
2 There is no one who is holy like you, Yahweh. There is no other god like you. There is no one like you, our God, who can protect us [as though you were putting us beneath] a huge rock [where we can hide from danger].
Truly, there is no one as holy as the LORD. Truly, there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
3 [You people who oppose God], stop boasting! Yahweh is a God who knows [everything], and he will evaluate/judge everyone’s actions. So don’t speak so arrogantly!
"Do not keep speaking proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth, for the LORD is a God of knowledge. By him actions are weighed.
4 Yahweh, you break the bows/weapons of mighty soldiers, and you give strength to those who stumble [because of being weak].
"The bows of the mighty men are broken. Those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Many people who previously had plenty to eat, now have to work for other people [to earn money] to buy food, but many who were always hungry are not hungry any more. The woman who did not have any children before, now has given birth to many/seven children, and the woman who had many children before, now is very lonely [because they have all died].
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children languishes.
6 Yahweh, you cause some people to die, and you restore some people who are almost dead. For some people, [it seems that they will soon] go to where the dead people are, but you cause them to become healthy again. (Sheol h7585)
"The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. (Sheol h7585)
7 Yahweh, you cause some people to be poor and you cause some people to be rich, you humble some people and you honor some people.
The LORD makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up.
8 [Sometimes] you lift poor people up so that they are no longer [despondent, sitting in the dust, ] or sitting on heaps of ashes; you cause them to sit next to princes; you cause them to sit on chairs/thrones where people who are highly honored sit. Yahweh, you are the one who laid the foundations of the earth, and you have set the whole world on those foundations.
He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's. He has set the world on them.
9 You will protect your loyal/faithful people [SYN], but you will cause the wicked to die [EUP] and descend to the dark [place where dead people are]. We do not defeat [our enemies] by our own strength;
He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness. For no man will prevail by strength.
10 Yahweh, you will break into pieces those who oppose you. You will cause thunder in the sky to show that you (oppose/are angry with) them. Yahweh, you will judge [people everywhere, even those who live in] the most remote places on the earth. You will give strength to the king whom you will appoint, and give him great power [over his enemies].”
The LORD will shatter his adversaries. He will thunder against them in the sky. "The LORD will judge the farthest parts of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed."
11 Then Elkanah [and his family] returned to Ramah, but Samuel, the little boy, stayed to help Eli the priest serve Yahweh.
Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child served the LORD before Eli the priest.
12 Eli’s two [, who were also priests, ] were very wicked. They did not revere (OR, respect/obey) Yahweh.
Now the sons of Eli were base men; they did not know the LORD.
13 While the people were boiling the meat from their sacrifices [in the huge pot at the temple], one of Eli’s sons, [would send his servant to come with a large three-pronged fork in his hand].
The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand;
14 [He] would stick the fork into [the meat in] the pot, and whatever meat fastened onto the fork, he would take [and give it] to the priest who sent him. Eli’s sons did this to all the Israeli people who came to Shiloh [to offer sacrifices].
and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15 Furthermore, before the fat [on the meat] was [cut off and] and burned [as a sacrifice to Yahweh], the servant of the priest would [sometimes] come to the man who was making the sacrifice and say to him, “Give me some meat [now to take] to the priest for him to roast! He wants raw meat; he does not want boiled meat.”
Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, "Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw."
16 If the man said to the servant, “Let the priests [cut off and] burn the fat first; then you can take what you want,” the servant would reply, “No, give it to me now; if you do not give it to me, I will take it forcefully!”
If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned first, and then take all of it which your soul desires"; then he would say, "No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force."
17 Yahweh considered that the young [sons of Eli] were committing a very great sin, because they were treating very disrespectfully the offerings that were being given to Yahweh.
The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for they despised the offering of the LORD.
18 As for Samuel, who was still a very young boy, he continued to do work for Yahweh, wearing a little sacred linen vest [like the Supreme Priest wore].
But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod.
19 Each year his mother made a [new] little robe for him and took it to him when she went up [to Shiloh] with her husband to offer a sacrifice.
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 Then Eli would [ask God to] bless Elkanah and his wife, and he would say to Elkanah, “I hope/desire that Yahweh will enable your wife to give birth to other children, to take the place of the one whom she dedicated to Yahweh.” Then Elkanah and his family would return home.
And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and said, "May the LORD repay you with offspring by this woman for the gift which she made to the LORD." And the man returned to his home.
21 And Yahweh was very kind to Hannah, and enabled her to give birth to three [other] sons and two daughters. Their son Samuel grew up while he was doing work for Yahweh [in the Sacred Tent].
The LORD visited Hannah, and she bore more children, three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.
22 Eli became very old. He often heard about all the [evil] things that his sons were doing to the Israeli people. He heard that they [sometimes] (slept with/had sex with) the women who worked at the entrance to the tent where [God] spoke to [his people].
Now Eli was very old; and he heard what his sons did to the children of Israel (and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting).
23 He said to them, “(It is terrible that you do such things!/Why do you do such things?) [RHQ] Many people keep telling me about the evil things that you do.
And he said to them, "Why do you do such things as these that I hear being said of you from the mouth of the people of the LORD?
24 My sons, stop it! The reports [about you] that the people who belong to Yahweh tell others are terrible [EUP]!
No, my sons, do not do this. For it is not a good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading.
25 If one person sins against another person, God can (intercede/act as a referee) between them. But if someone sins against Yahweh, no one can [RHQ] (intercede/act as a referee) between them!” But Eli’s sons would not listen to what their father said. This was because Yahweh had decided [that someone should] them.
If one man sins against another, he shall appeal to the LORD; but if a man sins against the LORD, who shall entreat for him?" But, they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them.
26 The boy Samuel continued to grow up, and the things that he did pleased Yahweh and the people.
The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD, and also with men.
27 One day, a prophet came to Eli and told him, “This is what Yahweh has told me: ‘When your ancestors were slaves of the king of Egypt, I appeared to Aaron.
A man of God came to Eli, and said, "Thus says the LORD, I plainly revealed myself to the house of your father, when they were slaves in Egypt to the house of Pharaoh.
28 From all the tribes of the Israeli people, I chose him [and his male descendants] to be priests for me. I appointed them to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear a sacred apron [as they worked] for me. And I declared that they could take [and eat some of the meat] that the Israeli people burned [on the altar].
And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel as food.
29 So why do you show disrespect for the sacrifices and offerings that I commanded [the people to bring] to me [RHQ]? You are honoring your sons more than you are honoring me, by allowing them to get fat from eating the best parts of all the sacrifices that the Israeli people bring to me!’
Why do you look down on my sacrifice and on my offering, which I have commanded for my dwelling place, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?'
30 “Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship], declares: ‘I definitely promised that Aaron and his descendants would continue to serve [IDM] me forever.’ But now I declare this: ‘It will not continue like that! I will honor those who honor me, but I will despise those who despise me.
"Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, 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 Listen carefully! There will soon be a time when I will cause all the strong [young men] in your family to die. The result will be that no men in your family will [live long enough to] become old men.
Look, the days come, that I will cut off your descendants, and the descendants of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.
32 You will be distressed and envious as you see the blessings that I will give to [the other people in] Israel. And [I repeat that] no men in your family will ever live long enough to become old men.
And you will see distress in the dwelling place, in all that he does good with Israel. And there will not be an old man in your house all the days.
33 There is one of your descendants whom I will spare, and not prevent him from serving me as a priest. But he will become blind, and then he will always be sad and grieving. But all your other descendants will die violently.
And the man of yours I do not cut off from my altar will be to cause his eyes to fail and to grieve his soul, and all the increase of your house will die by the sword of men.
34 And your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will both die on the same day. And that will prove to you [that all that I have said will come true/happen].
"'This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.
35 ‘have chosen another man to be my priest. He is one who will serve me faithfully: He will do everything I want [DOU] him to do. And I will enable him to have many descendants [IDM] who will be priests and will always serve me by helping the king whom I will choose.
I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.
36 All of your descendants who remain alive will have to go to that priest and ask him to give them money and food, and they will each have to say, “Please allow me to help the other priests, in order that I may [earn some money to] buy some food.”’”
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 priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"
