Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Hannah prayed: "The Lord has filled my heart with joy; how happy I am because of what he has done! I laugh at my enemies; how joyful I am because God has helped me!
1
Hannah prayed, and said: My heart exults in Yahweh; My horn is exalted in Yahweh; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation.
2 "No one is holy like the Lord; there is none like him, no protector like our God.
2
There is none holy as Yahweh; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock 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.
3
Talk no more so exceeding proudly; Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth; For Yahweh is a God of knowledge, By him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of strong soldiers are broken, but the weak grow strong.
4
The bows of the mighty men are broken; Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
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.
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 restores to life; he sends people to the world of the dead and brings them back again.
6
Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.
7 He makes some people poor and others rich; he humbles some and makes others great.
7
Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up.
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.
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 earth are Yahweh's, He has set the world on them.
9 "He protects the lives of his faithful people, but the wicked disappear in darkness; a man does not triumph by his own strength.
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 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."
10
Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces; Against them will he thunder in the sky: Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; He will give strength to his king, Exalt the horn of his anointed.
11 Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah, but the boy Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served the Lord under the priest Eli.
11
Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Yahweh before Eli the priest.
12 The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the Lord
12
Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn't know Yahweh.
13 or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking,
13
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 flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand;
14 he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this.
14
and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15 In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, "Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat."
15
Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.
16 If the person answered, "Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want," the priest's servant would say, "No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!"
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 This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the Lord's sight, because they treated the offerings to the Lord with such disrespect.
17
The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh.
18 In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the Lord, wearing a sacred linen apron.
18
But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
19 Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
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 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, "May the Lord give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him." After that they would go back home.
20
Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Yahweh give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh. They went to their own home.
21 The Lord did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.
21
Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh.
22 Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the Lord's presence.
22
Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting.
23 So he said to them, "Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing.
23
He said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.
24 Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the Lord are talking about!
24
No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make Yahweh's people to disobey.
25 If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the Lord?" But they would not listen to their father, for the Lord had decided to kill them.
25
If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh was minded to kill them.
26 The boy Samuel continued to grow and to gain favor both with the Lord and with people.
26
The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men.
27 A prophet came to Eli with this message from the Lord: "When your ancestor Aaron and his family were slaves of the king of Egypt, I revealed myself to Aaron.
27
There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt [in bondage] to Pharaoh's house?
28 From all the tribes of Israel I chose his family to be my priests, to serve at the altar, to burn the incense, and to wear the ephod to consult me. And I gave them the right to keep a share of the sacrifices burned on the altar.
28
and did I choose 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 did I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?
29 Why, then, do you look with greed at the sacrifices and offerings which I require from my people? Why, Eli, do you honor your sons more than me by letting them fatten themselves on the best parts of all the sacrifices my people offer to me?
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 Israel my people?
30 I, the Lord God of Israel, promised in the past that your family and your clan would serve me as priests for all time. But now I say that I won't have it any longer! Instead, I will honor those who honor me, and I will treat with contempt those who despise me.
30
Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now Yahweh 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, the time is coming when I will kill all the young men in your family and your clan, so that no man in your family will live to be old.
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 will be troubled and look with envy on all the blessings I will give to the other people of Israel, but no one in your family will ever again live to old age.
32
You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
33 Yet I will keep one of your descendants alive, and he will serve me as priest. But he will become blind and lose all hope, and all your other descendants will die a violent death.
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 When your two sons Hophni and Phinehas both die on the same day, this will show you that everything I have said will come true.
34
This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.
35 I will choose a priest who will be faithful to me and do everything I want him to. I will give him descendants, who will always serve in the presence of my chosen king.
35
I will raise me up a faithful priest, 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 Any of your descendants who survive will have to go to that priest and ask him for money and food, and beg to be allowed to help the priests, in order to have something to eat."
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 priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.