8 He lifts the poor from the dustand the needy from the garbage dump.He sets them among princes,placing them in seats of honor.For all the earth is the lord’s,and he has set the world in order.
9 “He will protect his faithful ones,but the wicked will disappear in darkness.No one will succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the lord will be shattered.He thunders against them from heaven;the lord judges throughout the earth.He gives power to his king;he increases the strength of his anointed one.”
11 Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the lord by assisting Eli the priest.
12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the lord
13 or for their duties as priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat of the sacrificed animal was still boiling,
14 the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way.