18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, a child girded with a linen ephod.
19. 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.
20. And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, May the Lord give you children by this woman for the gift she asked for and gave to the Lord. Then they would go to their own home.
21. And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she bore three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord.
22. Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
23. And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people.
24. No, my sons; it is no good report which I hear the Lord's people spreading abroad.
25. If one man wrongs another, God will mediate for him; but if a man wrongs the Lord, who shall intercede for him? Yet they did not listen to their father, for it was the Lord's will to slay them.
26. Now the boy Samuel grew and was in favor both with the Lord and with men.
27. A man of God came to Eli and said to him, Thus has the Lord said: I plainly revealed Myself to the house of your father [forefather Aaron] when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house.