1 Samuel 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Hannah prays a song of praise after giving her son Samuel to serve at the sanctuary at Shiloh, describing a God who reverses the fortunes of the strong and the weak. The chapter then contrasts the boy Samuel, growing up serving before the LORD, with Eli's sons, who steal from the sacrifices and sleep with the women serving at the entrance of the tent. Eli's warnings go unheeded, and a man of God brings a message announcing the end of Eli's family line as priests, the death of Hophni and Phinehas on the same day as a sign, and the raising up of a faithful priest in their place.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • Hannah prayed.
   • Hannah spoke.
   • Hannah said her heart rejoices in the LORD.
   • Hannah said her horn is exalted in the LORD.
   • Hannah said her mouth is opened wide against her enemies.
   • Hannah said she rejoices in God's salvation.
2. 2:2
   • No one is holy like the LORD.
   • There is no one besides the LORD.
   • There is no rock like our God.
3. 2:3
   • Hannah tells them not to keep speaking so proudly.
   • Hannah tells them not to let arrogance come out of their mouth.
   • The LORD is a God of knowledge.
   • By the LORD actions are weighed.
4. 2:4
   • The bows of the mighty men are broken.
   • Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
5. 2:5
   • Those who were full hire themselves out for bread.
   • Those who were hungry hunger no more.
   • The barren woman has borne seven.
   • She who has many children has grown feeble.
6. 2:6
   • The LORD kills.
   • The LORD makes alive.
   • The LORD brings down to the grave.
   • The LORD brings up.
7. 2:7
   • The LORD makes poor.
   • The LORD makes rich.
   • The LORD brings low.
   • The LORD lifts up.
8. 2:8
   • He raises the poor out of the dust.
   • He lifts the needy from the ash heap.
   • He sets them among princes.
   • He makes them inherit a throne of glory.
   • The pillars of the earth belong to the LORD.
   • He has set the world upon them.
9. 2:9
   • He will keep the feet of those faithful to him.
   • The wicked shall be silenced in darkness.
   • No man prevails by strength.
10. 2:10
    • The adversaries of the LORD shall be shattered.
    • He shall thunder against them out of heaven.
    • The LORD shall judge the ends of the earth.
    • He shall give strength to his king.
    • He shall exalt the horn of his anointed.
11. 2:11
    • Elkanah went to Ramah to his house.
    • The boy ministered to the LORD.
    • The boy ministered before Eli the priest.
12. 2:12
    • The sons of Eli were worthless men.
    • The sons of Eli did not know the LORD.
13. 2:13
    • This was the priests' custom with the people.
    • When any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant came.
    • The servant came while the flesh was boiling.
    • The servant had a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand.
14. 2:14
    • The servant struck the fleshhook into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot.
    • The priest took for himself everything the fleshhook brought up.
    • They did this to all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
15. 2:15
    • Before the fat was burned, the priest's servant came.
    • The servant said to the man sacrificing to give flesh to roast for the priest.
    • The servant said the priest would not take boiled flesh from him.
    • The servant said the priest would take raw flesh.
16. 2:16
    • If the man said to him to let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as he desired,
    • the servant would answer no.
    • The servant said the man must give it to him now.
    • The servant said that if not, he would take it by force.
17. 2:17
    • The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD.
    • The men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.
18. 2:18
    • Samuel ministered before the LORD.
    • Samuel was a boy.
    • Samuel was girded with a linen ephod.
19. 2:19
    • His mother made him a little robe.
    • She brought it to him from year to year.
    • She brought it when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20. 2:20
    • Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife.
    • Eli said the LORD should give him offspring from this woman.
    • Eli said this was in place of the one asked of and given to the LORD.
    • They went to their own place.
21. 2:21
    • The LORD visited Hannah.
    • Hannah conceived.
    • Hannah bore three sons and two daughters.
    • The boy Samuel grew up with the LORD.
22. 2:22
    • Eli was very old.
    • Eli heard everything his sons did to all Israel.
    • Eli heard that they lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
23. 2:23
    • Eli said to them, Why do you do such things?
    • Eli said he heard of their evil dealings from all the people.
24. 2:24
    • Eli said, No, my sons.
    • Eli said the report he heard was not good.
    • Eli said they were making the LORD's people transgress.
25. 2:25
    • If one man sins against another, one intervenes as arbiter for him; the Hebrew leaves it unclear whether that arbiter is God or a human judge.
    • If a man sins against the LORD, who shall intercede for him?
    • They did not listen to the voice of their father.
    • The LORD desired to put them to death.
26. 2:26
    • The boy Samuel continued to grow.
    • Samuel was in favor with the LORD.
    • Samuel was in favor with men.
27. 2:27
    • A man of God came to Eli.
    • The man of God said to him, Thus says the LORD.
    • The LORD asked whether he had plainly revealed himself to the house of Eli's father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house.
28. 2:28
    • The LORD asked whether he chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be his priest.
    • The priest was to offer upon the LORD's altar.
    • The priest was to burn incense.
    • The priest was to wear an ephod before the LORD.
    • The LORD asked whether he gave to the house of Eli's father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire.
29. 2:29
    • The LORD asked why they kick at his sacrifice and his offering.
    • The LORD commanded that sacrifice and offering for his dwelling.
    • The LORD said Eli honored his sons above him.
    • The LORD said they made themselves fat with the choicest of all the offerings of Israel his people.
30. 2:30
    • Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares.
    • The LORD said he had indeed said that Eli's house and his father's house would walk before him forever.
    • The LORD now declares, Be it far from me.
    • The LORD said he will honor those who honor him.
    • The LORD said those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed.
31. 2:31
    • Days are coming.
    • The LORD will cut off Eli's arm.
    • The LORD will cut off the arm of Eli's father's house.
    • There shall not be an old man in Eli's house.
32. 2:32
    • Eli shall look on distress in the LORD's dwelling; the Hebrew leaves it unclear whether what he sees is an adversary or affliction there.
    • This is amid all the good that God shall give Israel.
    • There shall not be an old man in Eli's house for all days.
33. 2:33
    • The LORD will not cut off every man of Eli's from his altar.
    • The one not cut off will consume Eli's eyes.
    • The one not cut off will grieve Eli's heart.
    • All the increase of Eli's house shall die as men in their prime.
34. 2:34
    • This shall be a sign to Eli.
    • The sign shall come upon Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
    • Both of them shall die on one day.
35. 2:35
    • The LORD will raise up for himself a faithful priest.
    • That priest shall do according to what is in the LORD's heart and mind.
    • The LORD will build him a sure house.
    • He shall walk before the LORD's anointed for all days.
36. 2:36
    • Everyone left in Eli's house shall come and bow down to him.
    • They shall bow for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread.
    • They shall ask to be put into one of the priests' offices.
    • They shall ask this so they may eat a piece of bread.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"Horn" is a Hebrew image drawn from a bull or ram: the horn is where its strength and pride are concentrated. To have your horn lifted high is to be given strength, standing and public honor; to have it cut off is to be humiliated. The image returns at the end of the song in verse 10.

2:2

Calling God a "rock" draws on the crags and cliffs of the Judean hills, where people took shelter from raiders and weather. The point of the metaphor is immovability and safety, not hardness.

2:3

"By him actions are weighed" uses the picture of a merchant's balance scales, where goods were checked against standard weights. The claim is that what people do gets measured accurately, whatever they say about themselves.

2:4

To be "girded" was to tie a belt tight around your clothes before hard work or a fight. Girded with strength means made ready and strong.

2:5

Hiring yourself out for bread means day labor paid in food, the last resort of the destitute. "Seven" is a round number for a full and complete family rather than an exact count; the contrast is with a woman whose many sons are no protection to her.

2:6

"The grave" translates Hebrew *Sheol*, the underworld where the dead were thought to go, all of them, not only the wicked. It is a place of shadow and silence rather than of punishment.

2:8

The "ash heap" (King James "dunghill") was the refuse tip outside a town where ashes, sweepings and rubbish were dumped; the homeless and the diseased scavenged and slept there. It stands for the lowest place in society, the opposite of the princes' seats in the next line.

2:9

Ancient Hebrew poetry pictured the earth as a flat disc resting on pillars sunk into the waters below, the same picture as verse 8's "foundations." Being "silenced in darkness" is a way of saying the dead can no longer speak or act.

2:10

"Anointed one" translates Hebrew *mashiach* (the source of our word "messiah"), meaning simply someone smeared with olive oil in a ceremony that installed him in office, here a king. Israel had no king yet at this point in the story, which is part of why these lines stand out.

2:11

Ramah was Elkanah's hometown in the hill country north of Jerusalem, roughly a day's walk from Shiloh. The point of the verse is that the parents went home and the small boy did not go with them.

2:12

The King James "sons of Belial" is a Hebrew idiom: *beliyya'al* means something like "worthlessness" or "ruin," and "son of" marks a person's character, not his parentage. It labels men who are good for nothing and destructive.

2:13

Under Israelite law only certain parts of an animal sacrifice went to the priests; most of the meat was boiled and eaten by the worshiper and his family as a shared meal. The three-pronged fork stabbed blindly into the pot took whatever it happened to snag, over and above the priests' proper share.

2:14

Shiloh, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem, was where the tent sanctuary stood in this period and where Israelites traveled to sacrifice. Jerusalem was not yet Israelite territory.

2:15

The fat of the animal was reserved to be burned on the altar before anyone ate, so demanding meat first meant taking what had not yet been given to God. Wanting it raw rather than boiled means wanting it before the sacrificial meal was cooked, meat for the priests' own kitchen, roasted the way they preferred.

2:16

"As much as thy soul desireth" simply means as much as you want.

2:17

"Abhorred" means hated, or could not stand. People began to dread bringing their offerings because of what these young men did.

2:18

An ephod was a sleeveless linen garment worn over the body, tied at the waist, the working dress of someone serving at a sanctuary. The elaborate ephod of the high priest (verse 28) was a grander version of the same thing.

2:19

Households traveled to Shiloh once a year for a family sacrifice; "came up" is the standard Hebrew way of speaking of a journey to a sanctuary, regardless of the actual terrain. The "little robe" is the same kind of garment (*me'il*) worn by those who served at the sanctuary.

2:20

The Hebrew here plays on one verb, *sha'al*, "to ask for" or "to lend": Hannah asked the LORD for this child and then handed him over on loan. The name Samuel is linked to that same verb in chapter 1.

2:21

"The LORD visited Hannah" does not mean God dropped by. In the King James, to visit someone means to step in and act for them.

2:22

The tent of meeting was the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, now pitched at Shiloh. The women mentioned were a recognized group who did service at its entrance; the text does not say what their duties were.

2:24

"Transgress" means to break God's law. Eli is saying his sons are dragging other people into sin with them.

2:25

The Hebrew word rendered "a judge" is *elohim*, which can mean God or can mean human judges acting in God's name; ancient and modern translators divide over which is meant. Either way the contrast is between a wrong that some authority can arbitrate and a wrong against God, where no third party is left to appeal to.

2:26

"In favour with" means people liked him and thought well of him. It does not mean he was doing favors for them.

2:27

"A man of God" is a standard term for a prophet, someone who arrives with a message from God and is not named. "Your ancestor's family" (King James "the house of thy father") means the priestly line Eli belongs to, going back to the time in Egypt.

2:28

The portions of the sacrifices burned on the altar supported the priests: what was not burned was their food and income. This is the background to the sons' greed: they were seizing more than the system already granted them.

2:29

"Kick at" is the image of a well-fed ox lashing out at its owner: a picture of contempt from someone who is being kept. "My dwelling place" is the sanctuary at Shiloh.

2:30

"Walk before me" is an idiom for serving in someone's presence as a permanent attendant, here, holding the priesthood down the generations. "Far be it from me" is a formal Hebrew phrase for repudiating something absolutely.

2:31

The King James "cut off thine arm" uses the arm as the standard image for strength and capacity to act. Living to old age marked a family as secure and blessed; its absence meant a line dying out early, generation after generation.

2:32

This verse is one of the most difficult in the Hebrew Bible and the text is damaged; translators variously read it as seeing "an enemy" or seeing "distress" in the sanctuary. The ambiguity is in the original, not in the English.

2:33

The Hebrew of the last clause reads literally "will die as men," which some ancient copies read as "will die by the sword of men" and others take to mean dying at the ordinary age of a grown man rather than living out a full life. Both readings are old.

2:34

A sign in this sense is a verifiable event given in advance, so that when it happens the rest of the message is confirmed. The deaths of Hophni and Phinehas are reported in chapter 4.

2:35

To "build someone a house" means to give him lasting descendants, a family line that continues in the office. "My anointed" again means a king installed with oil, again, before Israel had one.

2:36

There was no coinage yet; silver was weighed out in lumps, and a small piece of it was a day's survival money. Asking to be put into a priestly office means asking for any minor post at the sanctuary, since the priests' living came from a share of the offerings, the request of a family reduced to begging for work.