1 Samuel 2:11-26

¹¹Then Elkanah went to his home at Ramah. But the boy continued to attend to the service of the Lord before Eli the priest.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were useless men; they did not know the Lord. ¹³And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴And 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. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. ¹⁵Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.” ¹⁶And if the man said to him, “They must burn the fat first, then take as much as you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!” ¹⁷And so the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.

¹⁸Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord, as a boy wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹And his mother would make for him a little robe and bring it up to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the Lord give you children from this woman in place of the one she requested of the Lord.” And they went to their own home.

²¹The Lord indeed visited Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up before the Lord.

²²Now Eli was very old; and he heard about everything that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they slept with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. ²³So he said to them, “Why are you doing such things as these, the evil things that I hear from all these people? ²⁴No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. ²⁵If one person sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death.

²⁶Now the boy Samuel was continuing to grow and to be in favor both with the Lord and with people.