Study Desk

And they said to him, "Please ask of God, so that we may know whether our journey on which we are going will be successful."

"When you enter, you will come to people [feeling] safe and secure with a spacious land [widely extended on all sides]; for God has given it into your hands—a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

So they set up for themselves Micah's [silver-plated wooden] image which he had made, and kept it throughout the time that the house (tabernacle) of God was at Shiloh.

The chiefs of all the people of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand men on foot who drew the sword.

The men of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and asked of God and said, "Which of us shall take the lead to battle against the sons [tribe] of Benjamin?" And the LORD said, "Judah [shall go up] first."

And the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there [at Bethel] in those days,

So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.

They said, "O LORD, God of Israel, why has this come about in Israel, that there should be today one tribe missing from Israel?"

But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God.

"May the LORD repay you for your kindness, and may your reward be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him."

"There is no one holy like the LORD, There is no one besides You, There is no Rock like our God.

"Do not go on boasting so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; For the LORD is a God of knowledge, And by Him actions are weighed (examined).

"If one man does wrong and sins against another, God will intercede (arbitrate) for him; but if a man does wrong to the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to their father, for it was the LORD'S will to put them to death.

Then a man of God (prophet) came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Did I not plainly reveal Myself to the house of your father (ancestor) when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house?

"Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, 'I did indeed say that your house and that of [Aaron] your father would walk [in priestly service] before Me forever.' But now the LORD declares, 'Far be it from Me—for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be insignificant and contemptible.

'You will look at the distress of My house (the tabernacle), in spite of all the good which God will do for Israel, and there will never again be an old man in your house.

and the [oil] lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was,

"Now I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the sinful behavior which he knew [was happening], because his sons were bringing a curse on themselves [dishonoring and blaspheming God] and he did not rebuke them.

Then Eli said, "What is it that He said to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do the same to you, and more also, if you hide from me anything of all that He said to you."