¹And Hannah prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord,

My horn has been raised by the Lord,

My mouth has become broad over my enemies,

For I have rejoiced in your salvation.

²There is no-one holy like the Lord,

For there is no-one besides you,

Nor is there any rock like our God.

³Do not speak profusely in lofty words,

Nor let insolence issue from your mouth,

For the Lord is a God of knowledge,

And by him deeds are weighed.

⁴The bows of heroes are shattered,

But those who once stumbled

Have girded themselves with strength.

⁵The once satiated have hired themselves out for bread,

But the hungry are no more so.

Even the barren has borne seven,

Whereas she who had many sons is languishing.

⁶The Lord kills and makes alive;

He brings down to the grave and raises up.

⁷The Lord disinherits and enriches;

He abases as well as exalts.

⁸He raises up the poor from the dust

And elevates the needy from the dung heap,

To house them with princes

And to endow them with a throne of honour.

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,

And on them he has set the world.

⁹He will keep the feet of the man of his grace,

But the wicked will be destroyed in darkness,

For man will not prevail by force.

¹⁰As for the Lord, his adversaries will be broken;

He will thunder against them in heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth

And give strength to his king

And raise the horn of his messiah.”

¹¹Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. And the boy was serving the Lord before Eli the priest. ¹²But Eli's sons were good-for-nothing – they did not know the Lord. ¹³And it was the custom of the priests with the people that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant-boy would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴And he would plunge it into the pan or the cauldron or the kettle or the pot. Everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. So they did with all Israel which went there, to Shiloh. ¹⁵Also, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant-boy would come and say to the man who was making a sacrifice, “Give the meat to the priest to roast. And he will not accept cooked meat from you, but rather, raw.” ¹⁶And if the man said to him, “Be sure they burn the fat straightaway, then take for yourself whatever your heart desires”, then he would say to him, “No, for you must give it now, and if you do not, I will take it by force.” ¹⁷And the young men's sin was very great before the Lord, for the men despised the Lord's offering. ¹⁸But Samuel served before the Lord – a boy girded with an ephod of fine linen. ¹⁹And his mother would make him a little coat and bring it up to him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and he said, “May the Lord appoint you seed from this woman in return for the granted request – the boy who has been made over to the Lord.” Then they went home. ²¹Then the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy, Samuel, grew up in fellowship with the Lord. ²²Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything that his sons did to the whole of Israel, and that they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of contact. ²³And he said to them, “Why are you doing such things? For I hear about your bad behaviour from all of this people. ²⁴No, my sons, for it is not a good report that I hear about you, making the Lord's people transgress. ²⁵If a man sins against another, then God will judge him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” But they would not heed their father, and consequently the Lord wished to put them to death. ²⁶And the boy, Samuel, kept growing and was approved of by both the Lord and men. ²⁷And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Was I not clearly revealed to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? ²⁸And did I not choose him from all the tribes of Israel to be a priest to me? – to offer on my altar, to burn incense, to wear the ephod before me, and did I not allocate all the fire-offerings of the sons of Israel to your father's house? ²⁹Why are you recalcitrant about my sacrifice and my meal-offering which I commanded in my dwelling place, and why have you honoured your sons more than me by making yourselves fat with the beginning of all the offerings of my people Israel?’ ³⁰Therefore the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have explicitly said to your house and to the house of your father that they should walk before me age-abidingly. And now, says the Lord, far be it from me, for I will honour those who honour me, and those who despise me will be held in contempt. ³¹Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of the house of your father, so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³²And you will see distress in my dwelling place, in everything regarding which it has been treating Israel well, and there will not be an old man in your house at any time. ³³But I will not cut anyone of yours off from my altar when I waste your eyes away and wear your heart down, and at every increase in your house, men will die. ³⁴And this will be the sign to you, which will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas. On one day the two of them will die. ³⁵And I will raise up a faithful priest to myself, who will act according to what is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build a faithful house for him, and he will walk before my anointed at all times. ³⁶And it will come to pass that everyone who remains in your house will come to bow down before him for an agorah of silver and a loaf of bread, and he will say, «Admit me, please, to one of the priestly offices, so that I may eat a piece of bread.» ’ ”