Study Desk

One night Eli, who was now almost blind, was sleeping in his own room;

I have already told him that I am going to punish his family forever because his sons have spoken evil things against me. Eli knew they were doing this, but he did not stop them.

A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran all the way from the battlefield to Shiloh and arrived there the same day. To show his grief, he had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head.

Eli, who was very worried about the Covenant Box, was sitting in his seat beside the road, staring. The man spread the news throughout the town, and everyone cried out in fear.

When the man mentioned the Covenant Box, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He was so old and fat that the fall broke his neck, and he died. He had been a leader in Israel for forty years.

took it into the temple of their god Dagon, and set it up beside his statue.

(That is why even today the priests of Dagon and all his worshipers in Ashdod step over that place and do not walk on it.)

So the people of Kiriath Jearim got the Lord 's Covenant Box and took it to the house of a man named Abinadab, who lived on a hill. They consecrated his son Eleazar to be in charge of it.

Samuel killed a young lamb and burned it whole as a sacrifice to the Lord . Then he prayed to the Lord to help Israel, and the Lord answered his prayer.

Then he would go back to his home in Ramah, where also he would serve as judge. In Ramah he built an altar to the Lord .

When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges in Israel.

"This is how your king will treat you," Samuel explained. "He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run before his chariots.

He will make some of them officers in charge of a thousand men, and others in charge of fifty men. Your sons will have to plow his fields, harvest his crops, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots.

Your daughters will have to make perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his bakers.

He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.

He will take a tenth of your grain and of your grapes for his court officers and other officials.

He will take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his slaves.

When they came into the region of Zuph, Saul said to his servant, "Let's go back home, or my father might stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us."

So Saul and his servant went on to the town, and as they were going in, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way to the place of worship.

Then Samuel led Saul and his servant into the large room and gave them a place at the head of the table where the guests, about thirty in all, were seated.