Study Desk

When the sacrifice had been offered, and they had eaten the meal, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli was sitting in his chair near the door to the place of worship.

" Lord All-Powerful, I am your servant, but I am so miserable! Please let me have a son. I will give him to you for as long as he lives, and his hair will never be cut."

Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and worshiped the Lord . Then they went back home to Ramah. Later the Lord blessed Elkanah and Hannah

The next time Elkanah and his family went to offer their yearly sacrifice, he took along a gift that he had promised to give to the Lord .

But Hannah stayed home, because she had told Elkanah, "Samuel and I won't go until he's old enough for me to stop nursing him. Then I'll give him to the Lord , and he can stay there at Shiloh for the rest of his life."

Sometimes, when people were offering sacrifices, the servant would come over, even before the fat had been cut off and sacrificed to the Lord . Then the servant would tell them, "The priest doesn't want his meat boiled! Give him some raw meat that he can roast!"

and the clothes his mother made for him. She would bring new clothes every year, when she and her husband came to offer sacrifices at Shiloh.

Eli would always bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "Samuel was born in answer to your prayers. Now you have given him to the Lord . I pray that the Lord will bless you with more children to take his place." After Eli had blessed them, Elkanah and Hannah would return home.

Eli was now very old, and he heard what his sons were doing to the people of Israel.

Each day the Lord and his people liked Samuel more and more.

If I let anyone from your family be a priest, his life will be full of sadness and sorrow. But most of the men in your family will die a violent death!

I have chosen someone else to be my priest, someone who will be faithful and obey me. I will always let his family serve as priests and help my chosen king.

Samuel served the Lord by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. But one night, Eli was asleep in his room,

When the Lord called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, "Here I am. What do you want?" Eli finally realized that it was the Lord who was speaking to Samuel.

I will punish Eli and his family, just as I promised.

He knew that his sons refused to respect me, and he let them get away with it, even though I said I would punish his family forever.

I warned Eli that sacrifices or offerings could never make things right! His family has done too many disgusting things.

The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the Lord All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest. As Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,

That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show his sorrow.

He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying. Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting.