The Boy Samuel

Now, as the affairs of the Hebrews were going badly, they made war again on the Philistines. This is how it came about. Eli the high priest had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These sons of Eli were guilty of injustice toward men and of impiety toward God, and held back from no kind of wickedness. Some of the priests’ portions they carried off as the due of their honored office; others they took by plunder. They also outraged and defiled the women who came to worship God at the tabernacle, forcing some and luring others with bribes; in fact the whole course of their lives was nothing better than tyranny. So their father was angry with them for their wickedness, and expected God to punish them suddenly for what they had done. The people, too, took it very hard. And as soon as God had foretold the calamity that would befall Eli’s sons — which he did both to Eli himself and to Samuel the prophet, who was still only a child — Eli openly showed his grief at his sons’ coming destruction. [a]

I will first finish what I have to say about the prophet Samuel, and after that go on to speak of the sons of Eli and the miseries they brought on the whole people of the Hebrews. Elkanah, a Levite of middling rank among his fellow citizens, who lived at Ramathaim, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, married two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. He had children by the second, but he loved the other more, although she was barren. Elkanah came with his wives to the city of Shiloh to sacrifice, for that was where the tabernacle of God was set up, as we have said before. After he had sacrificed, he was handing out portions of the meat to his wives and children at the festival; and when Hannah saw the other wife’s children sitting around their mother, she burst into tears and lamented her barrenness and loneliness. Letting her grief outweigh her husband’s comfort, she went to the tabernacle to beg God to give her offspring and make her a mother, and to vow to dedicate the first son she bore to the service of God, in such a way that his manner of life would not be like that of ordinary men. As she went on praying a long time, Eli the high priest, who was sitting there in front of the tabernacle, told her to go away, thinking she was drunk with wine. But when she said she had drunk water, and was grieving for lack of children and begging God for them, he told her to take heart, and said that God would send her children. [b]

So she went back to her husband full of hope and ate her meal gladly. When they had returned to their own country she found she was pregnant, and they had a son, whom they named Samuel, which may be rendered “asked of God.” So they came to the tabernacle to offer sacrifice for the child’s birth, and brought their tithes with them. The woman remembered the vow she had made about her son, and handed him over to Eli, dedicating him to God, so that he might become a prophet. So his hair was left to grow long, and he drank only water. Samuel lived and was brought up in the temple. Elkanah had other sons by Hannah, and three daughters. [c]

When Samuel was twelve years old he began to prophesy. Once while he was asleep, God called him by name. Supposing the high priest had called him, he went to him; but the high priest said he had not called him. God did this three times. Then Eli was so far enlightened that he said to him, “Samuel, I was silent this time as before. It is God who is calling you. So tell him, and say, ‘Here I am, ready.’” So when he heard God speak again, he asked him to speak and to give him whatever oracles he pleased, for he would not fail to carry out any service God might use him for. God replied, “Since you are here and ready, learn what miseries are coming on the Israelites — such as words cannot describe, nor belief accept. The sons of Eli will die on one day, and the priesthood will pass to the family of Eleazar; for Eli has loved his sons more than he has loved my worship, and to a degree that is not for their good.” Eli made the prophet tell him this message under oath, for otherwise Samuel had no wish to grieve him by telling it. Now Eli had a far surer expectation of his sons’ destruction. But Samuel’s fame grew more and more, as experience showed that whatever he prophesied came to pass. [e]