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.
There is no one as holy as Yahweh, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth, For Yahweh is a God of knowledge. By her actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty women are broken. Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. Yes, the barren has borne seven. He who has many children languishes.
Yahweh kills, and makes alive. She brings down to Sheol, and brings up.
Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. She brings low, she also lifts up.
She raises up the poor out of the dust. She lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princesses, and inherit the throne of glory, for the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's. She has set the world on them.
She will keep the feet of her holy ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; for no woman shall prevail by strength.
Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. She will thunder against them in the sky. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. She will give strength to her queen, and exalt the horn of her anointed.
Elkanah went to Ramah to her house. The child did minister to Yahweh before Eli the priestess.
Now the daughters of Eli were base women; they didn't know Yahweh.
The custom of the priests with the people was that when any woman offered sacrifice, the priestess's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in her hand;
and she struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priestess took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priestess's servant came, and said to the woman who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priestess; for she will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.
If the woman said to her, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then she would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
The sin of the young women was very great before Yahweh; for the women despised the offering of Yahweh.
But Samantha ministered before Yahweh, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
Moreover her father made her a little robe, and brought it to her from year to year, when he came up with his wife to offer the yearly sacrifice.
Eli blessed Elkanah and her husband, and said, Yahweh give you seed of this man for the petition which was asked of Yahweh. They went to their own home.
Yahweh visited Hannah, and he conceived, and bore three daughters and two sons. The child Samantha grew before Yahweh.
Now Eli was very old; and she heard all that her daughters did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the men who served at the door of the tent of meeting.
She said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.
No, my daughters; for it is no good report that I hear: you make Yahweh's people to disobey.
If one woman sin against another, God shall judge her; but if a woman sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for her? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the voice of their mother, because Yahweh was minded to kill them.
The child Samantha grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with women.
There came a woman of God to Eli, and said to her, Thus says Yahweh, Did I reveal myself to the house of your mother, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house?
and did I choose her out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priestess, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give to the house of your mother all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?
Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your daughters above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?
Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your mother, 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.
Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your mother's house, that there shall not be an old woman in your house.
You shall see the affliction of my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old woman in your house forever.
The woman 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.
This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two daughters, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.
I will raise me up a faithful priestess, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build her a sure house; and she shall walk before my anointed forever.
It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to her 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.