Don&#8217;t consider your servant a wicked woman,<n id="1" /> for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Eli replied, &#8220;Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request that you have asked of him.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">They got up early the next morning and after worshiping the <sc>Lordsc>, they returned to their home at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with<n id="1" /> his wife Hannah, and the <sc>Lordsc> remembered<n id="2" /> her.

After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, &#8220;I asked the <sc>Lordsc> for him.<n id="1" />p>

but Hannah did not go up with them.<n id="1" /> Instead she told her husband, &#8220;Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the <sc>Lordsc>, and he will remain there from then on.&#8221;p>

His mother used to make him a small robe and bring it up to him at regular intervals when she would go up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice.

So the <sc>Lordsc> graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s sanctuary.<n id="1" />p>

Why are you<n id="1" /> scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place?<n id="2" /> You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.&#8217;p>

You will see trouble in my dwelling place!<n id="1" /> Israel will experience blessings,<n id="2" /> but there will not be an old man in your<n id="3" /> house for all time.<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now the boy Samuel continued serving the <sc>Lordsc> under Eli&#8217;s supervision.<n id="1" /> Word from the <sc>Lordsc> was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.p>

On that day I will carry out<n id="1" /> against Eli everything that I spoke about his house &#8211; from start to finish!

<p class="bodytext">So Samuel told him everything. He did not hold back anything from him. Eli<n id="1" /> said, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> will do what he pleases.&#8221;<n id="2" />

Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert!

<p class="bodytext">When Eli heard the outcry,<n id="1" /> he said, &#8220;What is this commotion?&#8221;<n id="2" /> The man quickly came and told Eli.

<p class="bodytext">So the men did as instructed.<n id="1" /> They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls.

Then the men of Israel left Mizpah and chased the Philistines, striking them down all the way to an area below Beth Car.p>

Then he would return to Ramah, because his home was there. He also judged<n id="1" /> Israel there and built an altar to the <sc>Lordsc> there.p>

He said, &#8220;Here are the policies of the king who will rule over you: He will conscript your sons and put them in his chariot forces and in his cavalry; they will run in front of his chariot.

In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the <sc>Lordsc> won&#8217;t answer you in that day.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

They replied, &#8220;Yes, straight ahead! But hurry now, for he came to the town today, and the people are making a sacrifice at the high place.