1 Samuel 2

1 Then Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exults in Yahweh, my strength [is] exalted in Yahweh; {I grin} over my enemies, for I rejoice over your salvation.

2 There is no one holy like Yahweh, for there is no one besides you, and there is no rock like our God.

3 Do not increase speaking {very proud}^[a] words! Let no arrogance go forth from your mouth, for Yahweh is a God of knowledge [whose] deeds are not weighed.^[b]

4 The bows of mighty warriors [are] shattered, but those who stumble gird [themselves with] strength.

5 Those who were full must hire themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry will become fat. As for the infertile, she will bear seven, but [she who has] many sons withers away.

6 Yahweh kills and restores alive, he brings down [to] Sheol^[c] and raises up.

7 Yahweh makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and also exalts.

8 He raises up the poor from [the] dust. From [the] ash heap he lifts up the needy, to cause them to sit with noble people and to cause them to inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth belong to Yahweh and he has set the inhabited world on them.

9 He will guard the feet of his faithful^[d] ones, but the wicked will be destroyed^[e] in the darkness, because a man will not prevail by [his] might.

10 Yahweh will shatter^[f] his adversaries;^[g] he will thunder against them in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the might of his anointed one.

11 Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. Now the boy was serving Yahweh {in the presence of}^[h] Eli the priest.

The Family of Eli the Priest

12 Now the sons of Eli [were] {worthless scoundrels};^[i] they did not know^[j] Yahweh.

13 And the custom of the priests with the people [was this]: When any man {brought a sacrifice},^[k] as the meat was boiling, the servant of the priest would take a three-pronged meat fork in his hand

14 and would thrust it into the pan or into the kettle or into the cauldron or into the cooking pot. All that the meat fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This [is] what they used to do to all of the Israelites who came there at Shiloh.

15 Also, before they {offered up}^[l] the fat as a burnt offering, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest meat for roasting, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but only {raw}."^[m]

16 And [if] the man said to him, "Let them burn the fat completely {first}, then take for yourself as {you} desire," then he would say to him, "No! Give it now! If not, I will take it by force!"

17 So the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of Yahweh, because the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt.

Samuel’s Life in the Tabernacle

18 Now Samuel [was] serving before Yahweh, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.

19 His mother used to make for him a small robe and take it to him {year by year} whenever she came up with her husband to offer the {annual sacrifice}.

20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and he said, "May Yahweh give you an offspring from this woman in place of the petitioned [one] that she requested from Yahweh." Then they went to their home.

21 Yahweh took note of Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters, while the young man Samuel grew up with Yahweh.

Eli Rebukes His Evil Sons

22 Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel and that they [were] having sexual relations with the women who [were] serving [at] the entrance of [the] tent of assembly.

23 And he asked them, "Why are you doing all these things that I am hearing, [namely], your evil dealings with all these people?

24 No, my sons, the report [is] not good that I am hearing the people of Yahweh spreading.

25 If a man sins against a man, then God can intercede for him. But if a man sins against Yahweh, who can intercede for him?" But they did not {obey} their father, because Yahweh wanted to kill them.

26 But the boy Samuel {continued to grow in stature and in favor} with Yahweh and with the people.

Yahweh Rebukes Eli

27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him: "Thus says Yahweh: 'Did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your ancestor when they were in Egypt under the house of Pharaoh?

28 And I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be a priest to me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to bear an ephod before me. I gave to the house of your ancestor all the offerings made by fire by the {Israelites}.

29 Why do you despise my sacrifice and my offering which I commanded [for my] dwelling place, while you honored your sons more than me by making yourselves fat from the best of all the offerings of my people Israel?

30 Therefore,' {declares} Yahweh the God of Israel, 'though I solemnly said that your house and the house of your ancestor would walk before me forever, but now,' {declares} Yahweh, 'far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, I will treat with contempt!

31 Look, days [are] coming when I will cut off your {strength} and the {strength} of the house of your ancestor {so that no one in your house will live to old age}.

32 You will look at the distress of my dwelling place, [despite] all the good caused for Israel, but there will never be an old [man] in your household {forever}!

33 The only one I will not cut off from my altar [is you]. [Rather], to cause your eyes to fail and to cause your soul to grieve, {all the members of your household} will die [as] men.

34 This [is] the sign for you that will come regarding your two sons Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day!

35 But I will raise up for myself a reliable priest; he will do just according to what [is] in my heart and in my soul. I will build for him a lasting house and he will walk continually before my anointed one {forever}.

36 All the remainder of your household will come to bow down {before} him for a bit of silver or a loaf of bread and will say, "Please assign me to one of the {priestly offices} so that I can eat a morsel of bread." '"

1 Samuel 2 Commentary

Chapter 2

Hannah's song of thanksgiving. (1-10) The wickedness of Eli's sons, Samuel's ministry. (11-26) The prophecy against Eli's family. (27-36)

Verses 1-10 Hannah's heart rejoiced, not in Samuel, but in the Lord. She looks beyond the gift, and praises the Giver. She rejoiced in the salvation of the Lord, and in expectation of His coming, who is the whole salvation of his people. The strong are soon weakened, and the weak are soon strengthened, when God pleases. Are we poor? God made us poor, which is a good reason why we should be content, and make up our minds to our condition. Are we rich? God made us rich, which is a good reason why we should be thankful, and serve him cheerfully, and do good with the abundance he gives us. He respects not man's wisdom or fancied excellences, but chooses those whom the world accounts foolish, teaching them to feel their guilt, and to value his free and precious salvation. This prophecy looks to the kingdom of Christ, that kingdom of grace, of which Hannah speaks, after having spoken largely of the kingdom of providence. And here is the first time that we meet with the name MESSIAH, or his Anointed. The subjects of Christ's kingdom will be safe, and the enemies of it will be ruined; for the Anointed, the Lord Christ, is able to save, and to destroy.

Verses 11-26 Samuel, being devoted to the Lord in a special manner, was from a child employed about the sanctuary in the services he was capable of. As he did this with a pious disposition of mind, it was called ministering unto the Lord. He received a blessing from the Lord. Those young people who serve God as well as they can, he will enable to improve, that they may serve him better. Eli shunned trouble and exertion. This led him to indulge his children, without using parental authority to restrain and correct them when young. He winked at the abuses in the service of the sanctuary till they became customs, and led to abominations; and his sons, who should have taught those that engaged in the service of the sanctuary what was good, solicited them to wickedness. Their offence was committed even in offering the sacrifices for sins, which typified the atonement of the Saviour! Sins against the remedy, the atonement itself, are most dangerous, they tread under foot the blood of the covenant. Eli's reproof was far too mild and gentle. In general, none are more abandoned than the degenerate children of godly persons, when they break through restraints.

Verses 27-36 Those who allow their children in any evil way, and do not use their authority to restrain and punish them, in effect honour them more than God. Let Eli's example excite parents earnestly to strive against the beginnings of wickedness, and to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In the midst of the sentence against the house of Eli, mercy is promised to Israel. God's work shall never fall to the ground for want of hands to carry it on. Christ is that merciful and faithful High Priest, whom God raised up when the Levitical priesthood was thrown off, who in all things did his Father's mind, and for whom God will build a sure house, build it on a rock, so that hell cannot prevail against it.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "proud, proud"
• [b]. So Masoretic Hebrew text (Kethib); the reading tradition (Qere) reads "and by him deeds are weighed"
• [c]. "Sheol" is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the underworld.
• [d]. Or "loyal"
• [e]. Or "will be silenced"
• [f]. Singular verb supported by Syriac, Targums, Septuagint, and Old Latin versions.
• [g]. The Masoretic Hebrew text (Kethib) has the singular "adversary"; the reading tradition (Qere) reads the plural
• [h]. Literally "in the face of"
• [i]. Literally "sons of Belial"
• [j]. Or "acknowledge"
• [k]. Literally "[was] sacrificing a sacrifice" and so throughout 1 & 2 Samuel
• [l]. Literally "caused to go up in smoke"
• [m]. Literally "with the life"
• [n]. Literally "as the day"
• [o]. Literally "as your soul"
• [p]. According to the reading tradition (Qere)
• [q]. Literally "from days to days"
• [r]. Literally "the sacrifice of days"
• [s]. Or "meeting"
• [t]. Literally "listen to the voice of"
• [u]. Literally "[was] going and being great and good"
• [v]. Or "father," meaning Aaron
• [w]. Or "father"
• [x]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [y]. Literally "the declaration of"
• [z]. Or "father"
• [aa]. Literally "the declaration of"
• [ab]. Literally "arm," figurative of "strength" in the context of "descendants"
• [ac]. Literally "arm," figurative of "strength" in the context of "descendants"
• [ad]. Or "father"
• [ae]. Literally "from being old in your house"
• [af]. Literally "all the days"
• [ag]. Understanding the beth preposition as a beth essentiae
• [ah]. Literally "all the abundance of your house"
• [ai]. Or "in their prime"; some Greek and other manuscripts supply "sword" ("will die by the sword of men")
• [aj]. Or "faithful"
• [ak]. Hebrew "faithful" or "reliable"
• [al]. Literally "all the days"
• [am]. Literally "to"
• [an]. Literally "priesthoods"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 2

In this chapter the song of Hannah is recorded, 1Sa 2:1-10, and an account is given of the return of Elkanah and Hannah to their own home, and of the care she took yearly to provide a coat for Samuel, and of her being blessed with many other children, and of the growth and ministry of Samuel before the Lord, 1Sa 2:11,18-21,26, and of the wickedness of the sons of Eli, 1Sa 2:12-17, and of Eli's too gentle treatment of them when he reproved them for it, 1Sa 2:22-25 and of a sharp message sent him from the Lord on that account, threatening destruction to his house, of which the death of his two sons would be a sign, 1Sa 2:27-36.