Hannah prayed, and said:
My heart exults in Allah;
My horn is exalted in Allah;
My mouth is enlarged over my enemies;
Because I rejoice in your salvation.
2There is none holy as Allah;
For there is none besides you,
Neither is there any rock like our God.
3Talk no more so very proudly;
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For Allah is a God of knowledge,
By him actions are weighed.
4The bows of the mighty men are broken;
Those who stumbled are girded with strength.
5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread;
Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger:
Yes, the barren has borne seven;
She who has many children languishes.
6Allah kills, and makes alive:
He brings down to the grave, and brings up.
7Allah makes poor, and makes rich:
He brings low, he also lifts up.
8He raises up the poor out of the dust,
He lifts up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes,
To inherit the throne of glory:
For the pillars of the earth are Allah’s,
He has set the world on them.
9He will keep the feet of his holy ones;
But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness;
For by strength shall no man prevail.
10Those who strive with Allah shall be broken to pieces;
Against them will he thunder in the sky:
Allah will judge the ends of the earth;
He will give strength to his king,
Exalt the horn of his anointed.
11Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Allah before Eli the priest. 12Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they did not know Allah. 13The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the meat was boiling, with a meat-hook of three teeth in his hand; 14and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the meat-hook brought up the priest took. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15But before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled meat of you, but raw. 16If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force. 17The sin of the young men was very great before Allah; for the men despised the offering of Allah. 18ButSamuel ministered before Allah, being a child, wearing a linen ephod. 19Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Allah give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of Allah. They went to their own home. 21Allah visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Allah. 22Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting. 23He said to them, Why do you such things? I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you cause Allah’s people to disobey. 25If one man sins against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sins against Allah, who shall intercede for him? However, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because Allah was minded to kill them. 26The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favour both with Allah, and also with men. 27There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Allah, Did I not reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Firaun’s house? 28I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. I gave to the house of your father all the offerings of Bani-Israel made by fire. 29Why kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded for my dwelling place, and honour your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people? 30Therefore Allah, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now Allah says, Be it far from me; for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 31Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house. 32You shall see distress in my dwelling place, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33The man 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. 34This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day both of them shall die. 35I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever. 36It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him 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.