1 Samuel 2

Hannah answers God’s gift of Samuel with a song of praise. She celebrates the LORD, who humbles the proud and lifts the lowly. The rest of the chapter contrasts the greedy, corrupt sons of Eli with the young Samuel, who grows up serving God. A man of God then announces judgment on Eli’s house.

1 Samuel 2:1

Hannah prays out of overflowing joy, not need. God has answered her, and her gladness is in the LORD himself, not only in her son. She speaks boldly because her rescue shows that her enemies are not the last word.

BSA: horn (“a horn; a hill or peak”): A horn stands for strength and honor, so a lifted horn means God has restored her dignity. salvation (“deliverance, victory, being saved from trouble”): Her joy is in God’s rescue, which is bigger than the gift of a child.

Hebrew: קֶרֶן (qeren, H7161) — “horn.” Animals fight and show strength with their horns, so a raised horn pictured victory and honor. Hannah, once shamed, now holds her head high.

See also: Luke 1:46-55.

1 Samuel 2:2

No one compares with the LORD. His holiness means he is set apart from every creature, and he is utterly dependable. Hannah calls him a Rock, a place of safety that does not shift when life does.

BSA: Rock (“strong refuge, boulder”): God is a solid hiding place that holds firm in every storm. holy (“set apart, sacred”): God is in a class entirely by himself.

Hebrew: צוּר (tsur, H6697) — “rock, cliff.” It names a great rock face where a person could hide from enemies. Hannah’s picture is of safety and permanence.

See also: Psalm 18:2.

1 Samuel 2:3

Hannah warns proud talkers. Boasting forgets that God hears everything and sees through every motive. He does not merely watch what we do. He weighs it, and he knows the heart behind it.

BSA: weighed (“measured, evaluated, judged”): God judges as with true scales, with perfect fairness, and nothing is mistaken or overlooked.

1 Samuel 2:4

God reverses the world’s ranking of strength. The warriors’ bows snap, while those who stumbled are belted with new power. Hannah is describing how God works, and it comforts the weak.

BSA: feeble (“weak, stumbling”): Those who are barely staying on their feet are the ones God clothes with strength.

1 Samuel 2:5

Three more reversals follow. The full must work for bread, the hungry are filled, and the childless woman bears many while the mother of many fades. Hannah knows this from her own life. God changes fortunes as he sees fit.

BSA: barren (“sterile, childless”): Hannah describes her own former state. God overturned what looked permanent.

1 Samuel 2:6

Life and death are in God’s hand. He can bring a person to the edge of the grave and bring them back. Hannah’s point is not fear but trust. No situation is beyond his reach.

BSA: Sheol (“the underworld, hell, the grave”): It is the realm of the dead, and even there God has the power to raise up.

Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל (sheol, H7585) — “the realm of the dead, the grave.” The Old Testament uses this word for the place where the dead go. Hannah says even that place is not outside God’s authority.

See also: Deuteronomy 32:39.

1 Samuel 2:7

Wealth and poverty, humbling and honor all come under God’s rule. The verse is not scorning the poor or flattering the rich. It reminds everyone that no position is secure apart from the LORD.

BSA: humbles (“abases, brings low”): God brings the proud down, and he does it to teach and to judge.

1 Samuel 2:8

God lifts the poor from dust and rubbish heaps and seats them with nobles. The earth rests on his foundations, so he is free to rearrange its social order. Mary’s song later echoes these words.

BSA: ash heap (“dunghill, refuse pile”): It is the lowest place of the discarded and forgotten, and God lifts people out of it.

See also: Psalm 113:7-8; Luke 1:52.

1 Samuel 2:9

God watches over the path of those who are loyal to him, step by step. The wicked end in darkness. Human strength cannot win in the end, because victory belongs to God and not to those who trust themselves.

BSA: faithful ones (“pious, holy ones, saints”): These are people devoted to God, whom he personally protects.

Hebrew: חֲסִידָיו (chasidav, H2623) — “his loyal ones.” The word comes from God’s covenant love (chesed). It names those who answer his steadfast love with loyalty of their own.

1 Samuel 2:10

Hannah looks beyond herself to God’s final judgment and to a king he will strengthen. Israel had no king yet, so this is a striking hope. It points forward to David and, for Christians, to Christ.

BSA: anointed (“Messiah, the one set apart”): A king was set apart by oil. Christians hear in this word the coming Messiah.

Hebrew: מְשִׁיחוֹ (meshicho, H4899) — “his anointed one.” This is the Hebrew word that became ‘Messiah.’ It is one of its earliest uses in Scripture, and it describes God’s chosen king.

See also: Psalm 2:2; Luke 1:69.

1 Samuel 2:11

Elkanah goes home. Little Samuel stays and serves the LORD under Eli at Shiloh. A very young boy is left in the care of the aging priest, because his mother kept her promise to give him to God.

See also: 1 Samuel 1:28.

1 Samuel 2:12

Eli’s sons, who should model devotion, are called worthless. At heart they do not know the LORD. They hold the priest’s office without the personal knowledge of God that should lie behind it.

BSA: wicked (“evil, worthless”): The gloss ‘sons of Belial’ marks them as good-for-nothing and lawless.

Hebrew: בְּלִיַּעַל (beliyya’al, H1100) — “worthlessness, wickedness.” To be ‘sons of’ this word means worthlessness is their character. It marks them out as people who throw off restraint.

1 Samuel 2:13-14

The law gave priests a set portion of the offerings. These priests’ servants instead stabbed a fork into the boiling pot and took whatever came up. Worshipers who came to Shiloh to meet God were robbed there.

BSA: Shiloh (“a city of rest, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept”): It was Israel’s holy center, where worship should have been safest.

See also: Leviticus 7:31-34.

1 Samuel 2:15-16

It gets worse. The servant demanded meat before the fat was burned. The fat was God’s portion, and it was to be offered first. He insisted on raw meat and threatened force. They put their appetite above God’s claim and the worshiper’s rights.

See also: Leviticus 3:16.

1 Samuel 2:17

The narrator gives God’s verdict. Their sin was very great, because they were not only cheating people. They despised the offering that brought people near to God.

BSA: contempt (“spurning, scorn”): They treated what was holy as cheap and so showed scorn for God himself.

Hebrew: נִאֲצוּ (ni’atzu, H5006) — “they treated with contempt, spurned.” The word describes rejecting something with disdain. Their contempt was aimed at God’s own provision.

1 Samuel 2:18

In contrast to Eli’s sons stands a child. Samuel serves the LORD faithfully, dressed in a simple linen ephod. His service is humble, but it is real and sincere.

BSA: wearing (“girded with, clothed in”): He is dressed and ready for service, even at his young age.

Hebrew: אֵפוֹד (ephod, H646) — “a linen vest worn in sacred service.” The high priest’s ephod was richly made. Samuel wears a simple linen one, a sign of a servant helping at the sanctuary.

1 Samuel 2:19

Hannah makes a small robe for Samuel every year and brings it when the family goes to Shiloh. She has given him to God, and she still loves and cares for him in practical, quiet ways.

See also: 1 Samuel 1:28.

1 Samuel 2:20

Eli blesses Elkanah and Hannah and prays that God will replace the child they lent to him with others. Eli is failing as a father, but here he does his priestly work well, and God answers the blessing.

BSA: dedicated (“consecrated, set apart”): Samuel was not lost but set apart for God, and that is the sense of her gift.

1 Samuel 2:21

God is generous to Hannah. She gives one child and receives five more. Meanwhile Samuel grows up in God’s presence. Giving to God costs us, but it is never wasted.

BSA: attended to (“visited, overseen”): God turned toward Hannah personally and cared for her.

Hebrew: פָּקַד (paqad, H6485) — “to visit, to attend to, to take notice of.” It means God stepped in with care and action. His visit changed her life.

See also: Genesis 21:1.

1 Samuel 2:22

Eli is old and hears the reports about his sons’ abuse of the people. They are also sleeping with the women who served at the sanctuary entrance. Priests were meant to guard what is holy, and instead they are defiling it.

BSA: Tent of Meeting (“the tabernacle, sacred assembly”): This is the place where God met his people, which makes their sin there all the worse.

See also: Exodus 38:8.

1 Samuel 2:23-24

Eli finally confronts his sons, but only with words. He says the whole community is talking about them and calls the report bad. He is right, but he seems to lack the will to remove them from office.

BSA: report (“tidings, news”): What spreads among God’s people is a scandal that harms the nation’s trust in God’s house.

1 Samuel 2:25

Eli reasons that a wrong against a neighbor can be settled by a judge, but a wrong against God leaves no go-between. His sons would not listen, and God had already determined to judge them. Hardened hearts can pass beyond correction.

BSA: intercede (“mediate, act as a referee”): The picture is of a third party who steps between two sides and settles their dispute.

Hebrew: וּפִלְלוֹ (ufillo, H6419) — “and he will mediate for him.” The word can mean to judge or to arbitrate, and it is related to the word for praying. Eli asks who could stand between a sinner and God.

See also: Psalm 51:4; 1 Timothy 2:5.

1 Samuel 2:26

In a dark story there is a bright thread. Samuel keeps growing, and God and people alike approve of him. Luke says almost the same of the young Jesus.

See also: Luke 2:52.

1 Samuel 2:27-28

A prophet comes to Eli with God’s word. God reminds him of grace: he revealed himself to Eli’s ancestor in Egypt and chose his family for the priesthood, with altar, incense, ephod and a share of the offerings. The priesthood was a gift, not a right.

BSA: selected (“chose, appointed”): The priesthood was God’s own choice, so it was never a family possession.

See also: Exodus 28:1.

1 Samuel 2:29

God accuses Eli. His family treats the sacrifices with contempt and fattens itself on the best portions. Eli has honored his sons above God, probably by letting them continue unchecked.

BSA: kick (“tread down, despise”): They trample on what God commanded, like someone kicking aside a gift.

Hebrew: תִבְעֲטוּ (tiv’atu, H1163) — “you kick at, trample.” It is the picture of an animal kicking against something. Here it pictures priests who lash out at the offering God gave.

1 Samuel 2:30

God had promised Eli’s house a lasting place in his service, but promises like this depend on faithfulness. God’s answer is ‘Far be it from Me.’ He honors those who honor him, and he disgraces those who despise him.

BSA: honor (“glorify, esteem”): God’s honor goes to those who take his glory seriously.

Hebrew: חָלִילָה (chalilah, H2486) — “far be it, never.” It is a strong word of rejection, ‘God forbid.’ God declares the old promise cannot stand with this sin.

1 Samuel 2:31-33

God announces what is coming. Eli’s family will lose its strength, and few will live to old age. Those who survive will grieve. This was fulfilled later, when King Saul’s servant Doeg killed the priests at Nob.

BSA: strength (“arm, power, ability”): The ‘arm’ pictures the family’s might and means to serve, and God will cut it down.

See also: 1 Samuel 22:18-20.

1 Samuel 2:34

God gives a sign that the whole word will come true. Hophni and Phinehas will die on the same day. Eli can watch for this and know God has spoken.

See also: 1 Samuel 4:11.

1 Samuel 2:35

God will raise up a faithful priest who does what is in his heart. Samuel fits this in part. Later priestly history may also be in view. For Christians, this points on to Christ, the perfectly faithful priest.

BSA: faithful (“trustworthy, reliable”): He will do what God asks, unlike Eli’s sons.

Hebrew: נֶאֱמָן (ne’eman, H539) — “faithful, reliable, trustworthy.” It comes from the same root as ‘amen,’ meaning firm and sure. God wants a priest on whom he can lean his full weight.

See also: Hebrews 2:17; 1 Kings 2:35.

1 Samuel 2:36

The proud house will be reduced to begging. Survivors will bow to the new priest and plead for a bit of silver or bread, asking for any priestly post just to eat. Those who once took the best now beg for scraps.

BSA: bow down (“crouch, prostrate themselves”): They are humbled so far that they must grovel before the one they once looked down on.