Study Desk

Yahweh will shatter his adversaries; he will thunder against them in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the might of his anointed one.

Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. Now the boy was serving Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest.

And the custom of the priests with the people was this: When any man brought a sacrifice, as the meat was boiling, the servant of the priest would take a three-pronged meat fork in his hand

His mother used to make for him a small robe and take it to him year by year whenever she came up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and he said, "May Yahweh give you an offspring from this woman in place of the petitioned one that she requested from Yahweh." Then they went to their home.

Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel and that they were having sexual relations with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of assembly.

And then one day when Eli was lying in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak so that he was not able to see)

So Eli said to Samuel "Go lie down. If he calls to you, then you must say, ‘Speak Yahweh, because your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken against his household, from beginning to end.

I will make him know that I am about to judge his household forever because of the iniquity that he knew, for his sons were bringing curses on themselves, but he did not rebuke them.

So Samuel told him all the words and did not conceal anything from him. And he said, "He is Yahweh, he will do what is good in his sight."

And Samuel grew up, and Yahweh was with him. He did not allow any of his prophecies to go unfulfilled.

So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and each man fled to his tent, for the slaughter was very great. Thirty thousand foot soldiers from Israel fell.

A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh that same day, and his clothes were torn and earth was on his head.

When he came, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road watching, because his heart was anxious about the ark of God. Now the man had come to give his report in the city, and all the city cried out.

Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes stayed fixed ahead and he was not able to see.

Just as he mentioned the ark of God, he fell from his chair backwards against the side of the gate. He broke his neck and died, because the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news concerning the capture of the ark of God and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she went into labor and gave birth, because her labor pains came upon her.

When the Ashdodites got up early the next morning, there was Dagon fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh! So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

When they got up early in the morning the next day, there was Dagon fallen again with his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh! The head of Dagon and the palms of his two hands were cut off, lying at the threshold; only the body of Dagon was left.