Chapter 2

  Hannah prayed, and said: My heart exults in Yahweh; My horn is exalted in Yahweh; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation.  

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  There is none holy as Yahweh; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock like our God.  

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  Talk no more so exceeding proudly; Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth; For Yahweh is a God of knowledge, By him actions are weighed.  

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  The bows of the mighty men are broken; Those who stumbled are girded with strength.  

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  Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread; Those who were hungry have ceased [to hunger]: Yes, the barren has borne seven; She who has many children languishes.  

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  Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.  

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  Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up.  

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  He raises up the poor out of the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, Inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's, He has set the world on them.  

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  He will keep the feet of his holy ones; But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail.  

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  Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces; Against them will he thunder in the sky: Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; He will give strength to his king, Exalt the horn of his anointed.  

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  Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Yahweh before Eli the priest.  

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  Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn't know Yahweh.  

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  The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand;  

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  and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.  

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  Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.  

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  If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.  

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  The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh.  

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  But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.  

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  Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.  

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  Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Yahweh give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh. They went to their own home.  

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  Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh.  

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

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  He said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.  

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  No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make Yahweh's people to disobey.  

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  If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh was minded to kill them.  

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  The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men.  

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  There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt [in bondage] to Pharaoh's house?  

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  and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?  

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  Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in [my] habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?  

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  Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now Yahweh says, Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  

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  Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.  

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  You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.  

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  The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.  

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  This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.  

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  I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.  

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  It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.  

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