1. Then Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in Yahweh, my strength is exalted in Yahweh; I grin over my enemies, for I rejoice over your salvation.
2. There is no one holy like Yahweh, for there is no one besides you, and there is no rock like our God.
3. Do not increase speaking very proud words! Let no arrogance go forth from your mouth, for Yahweh is a God of knowledge whose deeds are not weighed.
4. The bows of mighty warriors are shattered, but those who stumble gird themselves with strength.
5. Those who were full must hire themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry will become fat. As for the infertile, she will bear seven, but she who has many sons withers away.
6. Yahweh kills and restores alive, he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7. Yahweh makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and also exalts.
8. He raises up the poor from the dust. From the ash heap he lifts up the needy, to cause them to sit with noble people and to cause them to inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth belong to Yahweh and he has set the inhabited world on them.
9. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked will be destroyed in the darkness, because a man will not prevail by his might.
10. Yahweh will shatter his adversaries; he will thunder against them in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the might of his anointed one.
11. Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. Now the boy was serving Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest.
12. Now the sons of Eli were worthless scoundrels; they did not know Yahweh.
13. And the custom of the priests with the people was this: When any man brought a sacrifice, as the meat was boiling, the servant of the priest would take a three-pronged meat fork in his hand
14. and would thrust it into the pan or into the kettle or into the cauldron or into the cooking pot. All that the meat fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they used to do to all of the Israelites who came there at Shiloh.
15. Also, before they offered up the fat as a burnt offering, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but only raw.”
16. And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat completely first, then take for yourself as you desire,” then he would say to him, “No! Give it now! If not, I will take it by force!”
17. So the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of Yahweh, because the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt.
18. Now Samuel was serving before Yahweh, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.
19. His mother used to make for him a small robe and take it to him year by year whenever she came up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.