1 In those days, when the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under the direction of Eli, there were very few messages from the Lord, and visions from him were quite rare.
2 One night Eli, who was now almost blind, was sleeping in his own room;
3 Samuel was sleeping in the sanctuary, where the sacred Covenant Box was. Before dawn, while the lamp was still burning,
4 the Lord called Samuel. He answered, “Yes, sir!”
5 and ran to Eli and said, “You called me, and here I am.”But Eli answered, “I didn't call you; go back to bed.” So Samuel went back to bed.