1. Then Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in Adonai, my horn is lifted high in Adonai. I smile wide over my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation.
2. There is none holy as Adonai, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.
3. Boast no more so proudly— insolence comes out of your mouth. For Adonai is the all-knowing God, and by Him deeds are weighed.
4. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the stumbling are girded with strength.
5. Those full hire themselves for bread, but those starving hunger no more. Even the barren gives birth to seven, but she with many sons languishes.
6. Adonai causes death and makes alive, He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7. Adonai makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and also lifts up.
8. He raises the helpless from the dust. He lifts the needy from the dunghill, to make them sit with nobles, granting them a seat of honor. For the earth’s pillars are Adonai’s, and He has set the world on them.
9. He guards the steps of His godly ones, but the wicked are silenced in darkness. For one does not prevail by might.
10. Those who oppose Adonai will be shattered. He thunders against them in heaven. He judges the ends of the earth. He gives strength to His king, exalting the horn of His anointed one.”
11. Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, while the boy served Adonai before Eli the kohen.
12. Now Eli’s sons were worthless men; they did not acknowledge Adonai.
13. Now this was the custom of the kohanim with the people: whenever any man offered a sacrifice, the kohen’s servant would come along, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand,
14. and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up, the kohen would take for himself. This is how they dealt with all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.
15. Even before they burned the fat, the kohen’s servant would come and say to the one offering sacrifice, “Give the kohen meat for roasting, since he will not accept boiled meat from you—only raw.”
16. If the man said to him, “Let them first burn the fat up as smoke, and then take as much as you desire,” he would reply, “No! But you must give it now—otherwise, I will take it by force.”
17. Thus the sin of the young men was very great before Adonai, for the men despised the offering of Adonai.
18. But Samuel was ministering before Adonai, as a boy girded with a linen ephod.