1 Samuel 2:2-12

2 "No one is holy like the Lord; there is none like him, no protector like our God.

3 Stop your loud boasting; silence your proud words. For the Lord is a God who knows, and he judges all that people do.

4 The bows of strong soldiers are broken, but the weak grow strong.

5 The people who once were well fed now hire themselves out to get food, but the hungry are hungry no more. The childless wife has borne seven children, but the mother of many is left with none.

6 The Lord kills and restores to life; ¹ he sends people to the world of the dead and brings them back again.

7 He makes some people poor and others rich; he humbles some and makes others great.

8 He lifts the poor from the dust and raises the needy from their misery. He makes them companions of princes and puts them in places of honor. The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord; on them he has built the world.

9 "He protects the lives of his faithful people, but the wicked disappear in darkness; a man does not triumph by his own strength.

10 The Lord's enemies will be destroyed; he will thunder against them from heaven. The Lord will judge the whole world; he will give power to his king, he will make his chosen king victorious."

11 Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah, but the boy Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served the Lord under the priest Eli.

12 The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the Lord

1 Samuel 2:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. +22.6Wisdom 16.13;Tobit 13.2.