Hannah ^aprayed and said,“My heart rejoices and triumphs in the LORD;^bMy horn (strength) is lifted up in the LORD,My mouth has opened wide to speak boldly against my enemies,Because ^cI rejoice in Your salvation.

11 Elkanah and his wife Hannah returned to ^aRamah to his house. ^bBut the child Samuel served the LORD ¹under the guidance of Eli the priest.

12 The sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were ^1aworthless (dishonorable, unprincipled) men; they did not know nor respect the LORD 13 ^aand the custom of the priests with the sacrifices of the people. When any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged meat fork in his hand; 14 then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did in Shiloh to all the sacrifices of the ¹Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before ^athey burned (offered) the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat to roast, since he will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.” 16 If the man said to him, “¹Certainly they are to burn (offer) the fat first, and then you may take as much as ²you want,” then the priest’s servant would say, “No! You shall give it to me now or I will take it by force.” 17 So the sin of the two young men Hophni and Phinehas was very great before the LORD, for the men ^atreated the offering of the LORD disrespectfully.

18 Now ^aSamuel was ministering before the LORD, as a child ^bdressed in a linen ephod a sacred item of priestly clothing. 19 Moreover, his mother would make him a little ^arobe and would bring it up to him each year when she came up with her husband to offer ^bthe yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would ^abless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she asked for which was ^bdedicated to the LORD.” Then they would return to their own home.

21 And the time came when ^athe LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And ^bthe boy Samuel grew before the LORD.

22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard about ^aeverything that his sons were doing to all the people of Israel, and how they were lying with ^bthe women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) . 23 Eli said to them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? 24 No, my sons; for the report ^athat I keep hearing from the passers-by among the LORD’S people is not good. 25 If one man does wrong and sins against another, ^aGod will intercede (arbitrate) for him; but ^bif a man does wrong to the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to their father, ¹for it was the ^cLORD’S will to put them to death.

26 But the boy ^aSamuel continued to grow in stature and in favor both with the LORD and with men.

27 ^aThen a man of God (prophet) came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘^bDid I not plainly reveal Myself to the house of your father (ancestor) when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 28 Moreover, ^1aI selected 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 from then on I ^bgave to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel. 29 Why then do you ^akick at (despise) My sacrifice and My offering ^bwhich I commanded in My ^cdwelling place, and ^dhonor your sons more than Me, by fattening yourselves with the choicest part of every offering of My people Israel?’ 30 Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, ‘^aI did indeed say that your house and that of Aaron your father would walk in priestly service before Me forever.’ But now the LORD declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for ^bthose who honor Me I will honor, and those ^cwho despise Me will be insignificant and contemptible. 31 Behold, ^athe time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 You will look at ^athe distress of My ¹house (the tabernacle) , in spite of all the good which God will do for Israel, and there will never again be an ^bold man in your house. 33 Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar; your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul will grieve, and all those born in your house will die as men in the prime of life. 1+@Sam 22:17-20 34 This will be ^athe sign to you which shall come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: ^bon the same day both of them shall die. 1+@Sam 4:17, 18 35 But ^aI will raise up for Myself a ¹faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and ^bI will build him a permanent and enduring house, and he will walk before ^cMy anointed ²forever. 1+@Sam 2:10 36 And it will happen that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and say, “Please assign me to one of the priest’s offices so I may eat a piece of bread.”’”