1 Samuel 2-4

EasyEnglish Bible

Hannah praises the Lord

2 Hannah prayed and she said,

¹¹ Then Elkanah went back to his home at Ramah with his family. But the young boy, Samuel, stayed in Shiloh. He served the Lord there, while Eli the priest took care of him.

Eli's wicked sons

¹² Eli's sons were wicked men. They did not respect the Lord. ¹³ They did not do what the priests should do.

People brought sacrifices to offer to the Lord at Shiloh. When the meat was still boiling in a pot, a servant of the priest would come. He would bring a fork that had three points. ¹⁴ He then pushed the fork into the pot. The priest took for himself any meat that came out on the fork. The priests did that to all the Israelites when they came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. ¹⁵ Their servant would even come before the fat was removed from the meat to be burned as a sacrifice. He would say to the person who had brought the sacrifice, ‘Give me some of the meat for the priest to bake. He will not accept meat that has already boiled. He will only accept meat that is fresh.’

¹⁶ Sometimes, the person said, ‘We must burn the fat first. Then you can take any meat that you want.’ The servant would reply, ‘No. Give the meat to me now, or I will take it from you anyway.’

¹⁷ The Lord knew what Eli's sons were doing. They did not respect the sacrifices that people were offering to the Lord. The Lord saw that their sin was very bad.

Samuel at Shiloh

¹⁸ But Samuel served the Lord faithfully, as a young boy. He wore a linen ephod. ¹⁹ Every year, Samuel's mother made a little coat for him. She took it to him when she went to Shiloh. She and her husband went there every year to offer their sacrifice to God. ²⁰ Each year, Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife. He said, ‘I pray that the Lord will give you more children to take the place of Samuel. Hannah has given her son to serve the Lord, so may she give birth to other children too.’

Then they would return to their own home. ²¹ The Lord blessed Hannah. She gave birth to three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel continued to grow as he served at the Lord's house in Shiloh.

²² Eli was very old now. He heard about everything that his sons were doing to all the Israelites. He knew that his sons had sex with some of the women helpers. Those women worked at the door of the Tent of Meeting. ²³ Eli said to his sons, ‘People have told me about all the evil things that you do. ²⁴ No, my sons, you should not do these terrible things. The Lord's people all complain about you. ²⁵ If you do something bad to another person, God can speak on your behalf. But if you do something bad against the Lord, nobody can speak on your behalf.’

Eli's sons did not listen to their father. The Lord had already decided to kill them.

²⁶ The young boy Samuel continued to grow. The Lord was pleased with him, and so were the people.

God's message to Eli

²⁷ A servant of God came and he spoke to Eli.^[b] This is what he said:

‘The Lord says, “A long time ago, when your ancestors were in Egypt, I showed myself to them. At that time they were slaves of Egypt's king. ²⁸ I chose your ancestor, Aaron, out of all the tribes of Israel. I chose him and his descendants to be my priests. I chose them to offer sacrifices on my altar, to burn incense and to wear the special ephod.^[c] I also gave them authority to eat part of the sacrifices and burnt offerings that the Israelites offered to me. ²⁹ But you and your sons do not respect the sacrifices that I have commanded people to offer in my house. Eli, you give more honour to your sons than you give to me. Your family eat all the best parts of the offerings that the Israelites bring to me. You have all become fat!”

³⁰ Because of what you have done, the Lord, Israel's God, says this to you: “I promised your family and your ancestors that they would serve me as priests for ever.” But now the Lord says, “That will never happen! I will give honour to people who respect me. But I will curse people who insult me. ³¹ So you and your family will soon come to an end. No one in your family will live to become old men. ³² You will see how trouble comes to my home here. Good things will happen to the Israelite people, but there will never be an old man in your family. ³³ One of your descendants may continue to serve me as a priest. But he will be very sad and his eyes will become weak. Anyone who is born in your family will die when they are young.

³⁴ This will show you that what I have said is true: Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will both die on the same day.

³⁵ I will choose another priest to serve me. He will be faithful. He will do everything that I want him to do. I will give him a strong family and he will serve my chosen king for ever. ³⁶ Everyone in your family who continues to live will have to bend down low to this priest. They will ask him for a few coins and a piece of bread. ‘Please let me help the priests so that I can have something to eat,’ they will say.” ’

God chooses Samuel

3 The boy Samuel continued to serve the Lord. Eli the priest taught him what to do. In those days, the Lord did not often give his messages to people. He did not often show things to them in visions.

² Eli's eyes had become weak. He could not see very well. One night, he was sleeping in his usual place. ³ The lamp of God was still burning.^[d] Samuel was lying down to sleep near the Covenant Box in the Lord's house. ⁴ Then the Lord called out to Samuel. Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵ Samuel ran to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

But Eli said, ‘I did not call your name. Go back and lie down again.’ So Samuel went and he lay down again.

⁶ Again the Lord called out, ‘Samuel’. So Samuel went to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

Eli answered, ‘My son, I did not call your name. Go back and lie down again.’

⁷ Samuel did not know the Lord yet. The Lord had not spoken to him before. ⁸ Then the Lord called Samuel's name for the third time. Samuel got up again. He went to Eli and he said, ‘You called my name. Here I am.’

Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy's name. ⁹ So Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go back and lie down again. If he calls your name again, you must say, “Speak, Lord. I am your servant and I am listening.” ’ So Samuel went back and he lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and he stood near to Samuel. He called Samuel's name again, as he had done before. He said, ‘Samuel, Samuel’. Samuel said, ‘Speak. I am your servant and I am listening.’^[e]

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to me. I am ready to do something great among the Israelite people. When people hear about it, they will shake with fear. ¹² When that day arrives, I will punish Eli and his family in all the ways that I have said. I will start at the beginning and I will continue to the end. ¹³ I have warned Eli that I would punish his family for all time. He knew that his sons were doing very bad things. They were insulting me, God, and Eli did not stop them. ¹⁴ So I made a strong promise and I said, “I will never forgive the sins of Eli's family. No sacrifices or offerings will ever take away those sins.” ’

¹⁵ Samuel lay down again until the morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord's house. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision that he had received from God. ¹⁶ But Eli called out to Samuel, ‘Samuel, my son.’ Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’

¹⁷ Eli asked Samuel, ‘What message did the Lord speak to you? You must not hide it from me. God will certainly punish you if you do not tell me everything that he said to you.’

¹⁸ So Samuel told Eli everything. He did not hide any of God's message. Then Eli said, ‘The Lord. must do what he thinks is right.’

¹⁹ The Lord was with Samuel while he continued to grow up. So every message that Samuel spoke became true. ²⁰ In all Israel, from the north to the south, everyone realized that Samuel was truly the Lord's prophet.^{[f] 21} The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh. He showed himself to Samuel and he spoke to him there.

4 Samuel spoke the Lord's messages to all the Israelites.

The Philistines take God's Covenant Box

The Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelite army put up their tents near the place called Ebenezer. The Philistine army put up their tents at Aphek. ² The Philistines went to attack the Israelites. As the battle continued, the Philistines won the fight and they killed about 4,000 Israelites.

³ The Israelite soldiers returned to their tents. The leaders of Israel said to each other, ‘Why did the Lord let the Philistines win against us today? We should bring the Lord's Covenant Box here from Shiloh. We will take it with us into the battle. Then it will save us from our enemies.’^[g]

⁴ So the people sent men to Shiloh and they brought back the Lord's Covenant Box. That is where the Lord Almighty sits between the cherubs. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, also came with God's Covenant Box. ⁵ The men brought the Lord's Covenant Box into the place where the soldiers' tents were. When the Israelites saw it, they shouted so loudly that the ground shook.

⁶ The Philistines heard the loud noise. They asked each other, ‘What is happening there among the Hebrew people's army?’^[h] Then they realized that the Lord's Covenant Box had arrived there. ⁷ They were afraid and they said, ‘Their gods have come to help them fight! We are in bad trouble. Nothing like this has happened to us before. ⁸ This is terrible! Nobody can save us from those powerful gods. Those gods punished the Egyptians with many bad diseases in the desert. ⁹ Philistine soldiers, you must be brave! You must fight as strong men! If not, we will become slaves of these Hebrew people, as they were once our slaves. So be ready to fight bravely!’

¹⁰ So the Philistines did fight strongly and they won again. They killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers in the battle. The other Israelite soldiers all ran home. ¹¹ The Philistines took God's Covenant Box for themselves. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, also died.

Eli dies

¹² That same day, a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle. He ran to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and he had put dirt on his head.^[i]

¹³ Eli was sitting on his chair by the side of the road in Shiloh. He was waiting for news of the battle. He wanted to know if God's Covenant Box was safe. When the soldier arrived in the city, he told the people what had happened in the battle. All the people started to cry loudly.

¹⁴ Eli heard the people's loud voices. He asked, ‘What is causing all the noise?’ The soldier quickly went to tell Eli the news. ¹⁵ Eli was now 98 years old and he could not see at all. ¹⁶ The soldier said to Eli, ‘I am the man who ran here today from the battle.’ Eli asked him, ‘What happened, my son?’

¹⁷ The soldier replied, ‘The Israelites ran away while the Philistines chased them. The Philistines killed many of our soldiers. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead. And the Philistines have taken away God's Covenant Box.’

¹⁸ Eli was sitting near the city's gate. He was old and fat. When the soldier spoke about God's Covenant Box, Eli fell back off his chair. His neck broke and he died. He had been a leader of Israel's people for 40 years.

¹⁹ At that time, Phinehas' wife was pregnant. She was ready to give birth. She heard the news that the Philistines had taken away God's Covenant Box. She heard that her husband Phinehas and his father Eli were dead. When she heard this news, she started to give birth to her baby. But she had a lot of pain. ²⁰ She was dying. The women who were helping her said, ‘Do not be afraid. You have given birth to a son!’ But this did not make her happy. She did not answer them.

²¹ She called the boy's name Ichabod, because she said, ‘God's glory has gone away from Israel.’ She said this because the Philistines had taken away God's Covenant Box, and because her husband and his father had died. ²² She said, ‘God's glory has gone away from Israel because the Covenant Box has gone.’