Study Desk

He keeps the feet of His holy ones,But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness,For not by power shall a man prevail.

Those who contend with Yahweh will be dismayed;Against them He will thunder in the heavens;Yahweh will render justice to the ends of the earth,And He will give strength to His king,And He will exalt the horn of His anointed."

Then Elkanah went to his home at Ramah. But the young boy ministered to Yahweh before Eli the priest.

And this was the legal judgment for the priests with the people: when any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest's young man would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.

And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "May Yahweh establish for you a seed from this woman in place of the one she dedicated to Yahweh." And they went to their own home.

Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

And it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to fade, and he could not see well),

And Eli said to Samuel, "Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh, for Your slave is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

In that day I will establish against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.

And I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew because his sons have been bringing a curse on themselves, but he did not rebuke them.

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is Yahweh; let Him do what seems good in His eyes."

Thus Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel 30,000 foot soldiers.

Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his robes torn and dust on his head.

And he came, and behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road eagerly watching because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. Now the man came to tell it in the city, and all the city cried out.

Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes had set so that he could not see.

And it happened that when he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died, for the man was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years.

Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas's wife, was with child and about to give birth. And she heard the report that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, so she kneeled down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.

Then the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, and behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again.