2:1["My heart has exulted in the Lord, and my horn has been exalted in my God; 2:1my mouth has been opened wide over my enemies: because I have rejoiced in your salvation. 2:2There is none holy, as the Lord is, for neither is there another besides you, and there is none strong like our God. 2:3Do not multiply speaking lofty things, boasting; 2:3let old things depart from your mouth: because the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him thoughts are prepared. 2:4The bow of the mighty has been overcome, and the weak have been girded with strength. 2:5Those filled before have hired themselves out for bread: and the hungry have been satisfied, until the barren one has borne very many: and she who had many sons has been made weak.
2:6The Lord puts to death and brings to life; 2:6he leads down to the underworld and leads back. 2:7The Lord makes poor and makes rich, he humbles and lifts up. 2:8He raises up the needy from the dust, and from the dung he lifts the poor: so that he may sit with princes, and may hold the throne of glory. 2:8For the hinges of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them. 2:9He will guard the feet of his saints, and the wicked will fall silent in darkness: because not in his own strength shall a man be made strong. 2:10His adversaries will dread the Lord: and over them in the heavens he will thunder.
2:10The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and will give command to his king, and will exalt the horn of his anointed."] And Elkanah went off to Ramah, into his house: but the boy was a minister in the sight of the Lord before the face of Eli the priest. 2:12Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial, not knowing the Lord, nor the office of the priests towards the people: but whoever had sacrificed a victim, the priest's servant would come, while the meat was being cooked, and he had a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would put it into the kettle, or into the cauldron, or into the pot, or into the pan: and all that the fork lifted, the priest would take for himself: thus they did to all Israel of those coming to Shiloh.
2:15Even before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come, and say to the one sacrificing: "Give me meat, so that I may cook it for the priest: for I will not receive cooked meat from you, but raw." 2:16And the one sacrificing would say to him: "Let the fat first be burned today according to custom, and take for yourself as much as your soul desires." 2:16He, answering, would say to him: "By no means: for you will give it now, otherwise I will take it by force." 2:17So the sin of the young men was great beyond measure before the Lord: because they were drawing men back from the sacrifice of the Lord.
2:18But Samuel was ministering before the face of the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod. 2:19And his mother used to make him a small tunic, which she brought on the appointed days, going up with her husband, to sacrifice the solemn victim. 2:20And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife: and said to him: "May the Lord repay you seed from this woman, for the loan which you have lent to the Lord." 2:20And they went off to their own place. 2:21So the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons, and two daughters: and the boy Samuel was made great with the Lord. 2:22Now Eli was very old, and he heard all the things which his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they were sleeping with the women who kept watch at the door of the tabernacle: and he said to them: "Why do you do things of this kind which I hear, very evil things, from all the people?
2:24Do not, my sons: for it is not a good report which I hear, that you make the people of the Lord transgress. 2:25If a man sins against a man, God can be appeased for him: but if a man sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?" 2:25And they did not listen to the voice of their father: because the Lord willed to kill them. 2:26But the boy Samuel was advancing and growing, and was pleasing both to the Lord and to men. 2:27And a man of God came to Eli, and said to him: "These things says the Lord: Was I not openly revealed to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in the house of Pharaoh?
2:28And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel for myself as priest, to go up to my altar, and to burn incense to me, and to carry the ephod before me: and I gave to the house of your father all things from the sacrifices of the sons of Israel. 2:29Why have you kicked away with the heel my victim, and my gifts which I commanded to be offered in the temple: and you have honoured your sons more than me, so that you might eat the first-fruits of every sacrifice of Israel my people? 2:30Therefore says the Lord God of Israel: Speaking I have spoken, that your house, and the house of your father, should minister in my sight for ever.
2:30But now the Lord says: Far be this from me: but whoever glorifies me, I will glorify him: but those who despise me shall be without honour. 2:31Look, days are coming, and I will cut off your arm, and the arm of the house of your father, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 2:32And you will see your rival in the temple, in all the prosperity of Israel: and there will not be an old man in your house all the days. 2:33Nevertheless I will not take away a man from you entirely from my altar: but so that your eyes may fail, and your soul may waste away: and a great part of your house will die when it has come to manly age.
2:34And this will be the sign for you, which is to come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on one day they will both die. 2:35And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will act according to my heart and my soul: and I will build him a faithful house, and he will walk before my anointed all the days. 2:36And it will come to be, that whoever remains in your house will come so that prayer may be made for him, and will offer a silver coin, and a loaf of bread, and will say: Admit me, I beg, to one priestly portion, so that I may eat a morsel of bread."