Eli

So Solomon banished Abiathar from the priesthood of the LORD and thus fulfilled the word that the LORD had spoken at Shiloh against the house of Eli.

Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD.

So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

¹² As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.

¹³ Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk

¹⁴ and said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine!”

“Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”

And when they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli.

¹¹ Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy began ministering to the LORD before Eli the priest.

¹² Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD

²⁰ And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD.” Then they would go home.

²¹ So the LORD attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.

²² Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

Then a man of God came to Eli and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your father’s house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh’s house?

¹ And the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. Now in those days the word of the LORD was rare and visions were scarce.

² And at that time Eli, whose eyesight had grown so dim that he could not see, was lying in his room.