Samuel

Every year Elkanah went up from his town to Shiloh to worship the Lord of Armies and offer sacrifices. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, served the Lord there as priests.

When Elkanah sacrificed, he gave shares of the meat to Peninnah and all her sons and daughters, and a double share to Hannah, because he loved her. But the Lord had not let her have children.

Her rival, Peninnah, taunted her cruelly over it, to upset her. It happened every year when they went up to the Lord’s house, and Hannah cried and didn’t eat.

“Hannah, why are you crying?” Elkanah asked her. “Why don’t you eat? Why are you so sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

One year at Shiloh, after they had eaten and drunk, Hannah got up. Eli the priest was sitting by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple. Hannah was miserable, and she prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.

She made a vow. “Lord of Armies,” she said, “if you will look at my misery and remember me, and not forget me, but give me a boy, then I will give him to the Lord all his life, and a razor will never touch his head.”

As she went on praying in the Lord’s presence, Eli was watching her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart. Her lips moved, but no one could hear her, so Eli thought she was drunk.

“How long will you go on being drunk?” Eli said to her. “Get rid of your wine!”

“No, my lord,” Hannah answered. “I’m a woman with a heavy heart. I haven’t been drinking wine or strong drink. I’ve been pouring out my soul in the Lord’s presence. Don’t think I’m a wicked woman. I’ve been speaking out of my great sorrow and the taunts I’ve had to bear.”

“Go in peace,” Eli answered. “May the God of Israel give you what you asked of him.”

“May you think kindly of me,” she said. Then she went on her way and ate, and the sadness was gone from her face.

In time Hannah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Samuel, a name that sounds like the Hebrew for “heard by God”. “I asked the Lord for him,” she said.

When Elkanah and his family went up to offer the Lord the yearly sacrifice and the offering he had vowed, Hannah stayed home. She would wait, she told him, until the boy was weaned and had stopped nursing. “Then I will take him to appear in the Lord’s presence, and he will stay there forever.”

“Do what seems best to you,” said Elkanah. “Wait until you have weaned him. May the Lord make his word come true.” So she nursed her son until he was weaned.

Then she took him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, though he was still young. She brought three bulls, a container of wine, and an ephah of flour, which is about six gallons. They killed the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

“Oh, my lord,” Hannah said, “as sure as you’re alive, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has given me what I asked of him. So I have given him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is the Lord’s.” He worshiped the Lord there.

Let the proud stop boasting, she sang, because the Lord knows all things and weighs what people do. The bows of the mighty are broken, and those who stumbled are made strong. Those who were full now hire themselves out for bread, and the hungry have plenty. The woman who had no children has given birth to seven, and the mother of many wastes away.

Elkanah went back home to Ramah. The boy stayed and served the Lord under Eli the priest.

This is how the priests treated every Israelite who came to Shiloh. When anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the meat was boiling. He stabbed a three-pronged fork into the pot, and the priest kept for himself whatever the fork brought up.

Even before the fat was burned, the servant would demand raw meat for the priest to roast, because the priest wouldn’t take boiled meat. If the man offering the sacrifice said to burn the fat first and then take all he wanted, the servant would say, “No, you’ll give it to me now. If not, I’ll take it by force.”

The young men’s sin was very great in the Lord’s presence, because they despised the Lord’s offering.

But the boy Samuel served in the Lord’s presence, wearing a linen ephod. His mother made him a little robe every year and brought it when she came up with her husband for the yearly sacrifice.

Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May the Lord give you children from this woman for the one she asked of the Lord.” Then they went home.

The Lord cared for Hannah, and she had three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew up in the Lord’s presence.

Eli was very old now. He heard about everything his sons did to all Israel, and that they slept with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

“Why do you do such things?” he asked them. “I hear from all these people about the wrong you do. No, my sons! What I hear about you isn’t good. You are making the Lord’s people disobey. If one person sins against another, God will judge him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who will speak up for him?”

But they wouldn’t listen to their father, because the Lord meant to put them to death.

The boy Samuel kept growing, and the Lord and people alike were more and more pleased with him.

Then a man of God came to Eli. “The Lord says, ‘When your ancestor’s family was in Egypt as slaves to Pharaoh’s household, I showed myself to them. I chose your ancestor out of all Israel’s tribes to be my priest. He was to go up to my altar, burn incense and wear an ephod before me. And I gave his family the Israelites’ offerings made by fire. So why do you look down on my sacrifices and offerings? Why do you honor your sons more than me, and grow fat on the best of my people’s offerings?’

“So the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I did say that your family and your ancestor’s family would serve in my presence forever.’ But now he says, ‘Never! I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be cursed. The days are coming when I will break your power and the power of your ancestor’s family, and no one in your family will grow old. You will see trouble in my house, even while I give Israel every good thing. The man from your family whom I leave at my altar will wear out your eyes with tears and grieve your heart. All your descendants will die young.

“‘Here is the sign for you. It will happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day.

“‘I will raise up a faithful priest for myself, who will do what is in my heart and mind. I will build him a family that stands firm, and he will serve in the presence of my anointed one forever. Anyone left in your family will come and bow low to him, asking for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread. They will say, “Please give me a priest’s job, so I can have a bite of bread.”’”

By then Eli’s eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see. One night he was lying down in his place. God’s lamp hadn’t yet gone out. Samuel was lying down in the Lord’s temple, where God’s ark was.

Then the Lord called Samuel. “Here I am,” he answered.

He ran to Eli. “Here I am. You called me.”

“I didn’t call,” said Eli. “Lie down again.” So Samuel went and lay down.

Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went back to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.”

“I didn’t call, my son,” Eli answered. “Lie down again.”

Samuel didn’t know the Lord yet. The Lord had not yet spoken his word to him.

When the Lord called Samuel a third time, the boy got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” Then Eli understood that it was the Lord calling Samuel.

“Go and lie down,” Eli told Samuel. “If he calls you again, answer, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

The Lord came and stood there. He called as he had the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

The Lord said to Samuel, “Look, I am going to do something in Israel, and both ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle. When that day comes, I will do to Eli all that I have spoken against his family, from start to finish. I have told him that I will judge his family forever. He knew the wrong that was being done: his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t stop them. That is why I have sworn to Eli’s family that no sacrifice or offering will ever take away their sin.”

Samuel lay where he was until morning, and then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.

But Eli called him. “Samuel, my son!”

“Here I am,” Samuel answered.

“What did he say to you?” Eli asked. “Please don’t hide it from me. May God punish you severely if you hide even one thing he said to you.”

So Samuel told him every bit of it, and hid nothing from him.

“He is the Lord,” said Eli. “Let him do what seems best to him.”

Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, from one end of the land to the other, knew that Samuel was truly a prophet of the Lord.

The Lord appeared again at Shiloh. There the Lord made himself known to Samuel by his word. And Samuel’s words went out to all Israel.

The Philistines lined up against Israel and beat them, killing about four thousand men on the battlefield.

When the army came back to camp, Israel’s elders said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today in front of the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of the Lord’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it here, so it can come among us and save us from our enemies.”

So the people sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Armies, who sits above the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with it.

When the ark came into the camp, all Israel let out a shout so loud that the earth rang.

The Philistines heard the noise. “What is all this shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” they asked. When they learned that the Lord’s ark had come, they were afraid. “God has come into the camp!” they said. “We’re doomed! Nothing like this has ever happened before.

“We’re doomed! Who will save us from these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Be brave, Philistines! Act like men, or you will serve the Hebrews as they have served you. Act like men, and fight!”

So the Philistines fought and beat Israel, and every man fled home. The slaughter was terrible: thirty thousand of Israel’s foot soldiers were killed.

God’s ark was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed. They died on the same day, as the man of God had said.

Eli heard the crying. “What is all this uproar?” he asked. The man hurried over to him. Eli was ninety-eight years old and blind.

“I’ve come from the battle,” the man told Eli. “I ran away from the army today.”

“What happened, my son?” Eli asked.

“Israel has run from the Philistines,” the man answered. “There has been a great slaughter of our people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.”

When the man spoke of God’s ark, Eli fell backward off his seat by the gate. His neck broke and he died, because he was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.

His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was close to giving birth. When she heard that God’s ark was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, her birth pains began. She crouched down and gave birth.

She was dying. The women standing by her told her, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve had a son.” But she didn’t answer or pay any attention.

She named the boy Ichabod, which means “no glory”. “The glory has gone from Israel!” she said. She said it because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. Then she said, “The glory has gone from Israel, because God’s ark has been taken.”

Early the next day the people of Ashdod found Dagon fallen face down on the ground in front of the Lord’s ark. They set Dagon back in his place.

When they got up early the morning after, Dagon was face down in front of the Lord’s ark again. His head and both his hands had been cut off and lay on the threshold, the stone at the doorway. Only his body was left.

That is why, to this day, Dagon’s priests and everyone who goes into Dagon’s temple in Ashdod never step on its threshold.

Then the Lord’s hand came down hard on the people of Ashdod. He brought ruin on them and struck them with tumors, in Ashdod and all around it.

When the men of Ashdod saw this, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel can’t stay here. His hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god.”

So they called together all the Philistine rulers and asked what to do with the ark of the God of Israel. They were told to move it to Gath, and they did.

But once the ark was there, the Lord’s hand was against Gath, and he threw the city into great panic. He struck its people, young and old, and tumors broke out on them.

So they sent God’s ark on to Ekron, and as it came in, the people of Ekron cried out, “They’ve brought the ark of the God of Israel here to us, to kill us and our people!”

Again they called the Philistine rulers together. “Send the ark of the God of Israel away,” they said. “Let it go back to its own place, so it won’t kill us and our people.” A deadly panic filled the city; God’s hand was very heavy there.

The men who didn’t die were struck with tumors, and the city’s cry went up to heaven.

“If you send away the ark of the God of Israel,” the priests and diviners answered, “don’t send it empty. Be sure to send him a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and you’ll find out why his hand hasn’t left you.”

“What trespass offering should we send him?” the Philistines asked.

“Five gold tumors and five gold mice,” they answered, “one for each Philistine ruler, since the same plague struck you all. Make models of your tumors and of the mice ruining the land, and give the God of Israel glory. Maybe he will lift his hand from you, your gods and your land. So why be stubborn and harden your hearts, the way the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When he had done his wonders among them, didn’t they let the people go?

“Now build a new cart. Get two nursing cows that have never worn a yoke, and hitch them to the cart. Take their calves away from them and bring the calves home. Put the Lord’s ark on the cart, with the gold objects in a box beside it, and send it off. Then watch. If it heads up the road to its own land, to Beth Shemesh, he is the one who did us this great harm. If not, we’ll know it wasn’t his hand that struck us. It just happened by chance.”

The men did as they were told, and put the Lord’s ark on the cart with the box of gold mice and models of their tumors. The cows headed straight for Beth Shemesh along the highway, mooing as they went. They never turned to the right or the left, and the Philistine rulers followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

The people of Beth Shemesh were in the valley, harvesting their wheat. They looked up, saw the ark, and were overjoyed.

The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stood still by a large rock. They split up the cart for firewood and offered the cows to the Lord as a burnt offering. The Levites lifted down the ark and the box of gold objects and set them on the rock. That day the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

The five Philistine rulers watched it all, and went back to Ekron that same day.

The Philistines sent the Lord five gold tumors as a trespass offering, one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. There were as many gold mice as there were towns belonging to the five rulers, walled cities and country villages alike. The large rock where they set down the Lord’s ark is still in Joshua’s field to this day.

Then the Lord struck down men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Lord’s ark. He struck down fifty thousand and seventy of the men. The people mourned, because the Lord had struck them with a great slaughter.

“Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” the men of Beth Shemesh said. “Who will he go to from here?” They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim: “The Philistines have brought back the Lord’s ark. Come down and take it up with you.”

So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the Lord’s ark up to Abinadab’s house on the hill, and they set apart his son Eleazar to look after it.

“If you are coming back to the Lord with all your heart,” Samuel told all Israel, “throw out the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth. Give your hearts to the Lord and serve him only, and he will rescue you from the Philistines.”

So the Israelites threw out the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.

Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”

They gathered at Mizpah, drew water and poured it out there in the Lord’s presence, and fasted that day, eating nothing. “We have sinned against the Lord,” they said. And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.

When the Philistines heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, their rulers went up to attack, and the Israelites were afraid. “Don’t stop crying out for us to the Lord our God,” they told Samuel, “so that he will save us from the Philistines.”

Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it whole to the Lord as a burnt offering. He cried out to the Lord, praying for Israel, and the Lord answered him.

As Samuel was offering it, the Philistines came near to fight. But that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into confusion. They were beaten in front of Israel. Israel’s men came out of Mizpah and chased them, striking them down as far as below Beth Kar.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen. He called it Ebenezer, which means “stone of help”. “The Lord has helped us until now,” he said.

So the Philistines were humbled and stopped coming into Israel’s land. The Lord’s hand was against them as long as Samuel lived. The towns they had taken from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were given back, and Israel won back its land. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

Samuel judged Israel all his life. Every year he went around to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. Then he would come back to Ramah, where his home was, and judge Israel there. He built an altar to the Lord there.