1 Samuel 3 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1090 BC, while Samuel was still a boy serving under Eli
Location
The sanctuary at Shiloh, where Samuel slept near the ark of the covenant
Audience
Israelites under the monarchy and in exile, reading how God began speaking again after a long silence
Situation
God calls Samuel by name in the night three times, and Samuel, not yet recognising the voice, keeps running to Eli. Eli realises what is happening and tells him how to answer, and Samuel receives a message confirming judgment on Eli's house.
Key Background
The chapter opens by noting that messages from God were rare in those days, which frames the whole scene as the reopening of a closed channel. The lamp in the sanctuary burned through the night and was tended until morning, so the detail that it had not yet gone out places the call in the last hours before dawn. Delivering bad news to an elder was socially difficult, which is why the boy is afraid to speak and Eli has to press him with an oath formula to get the message out.
The boy Samuel was under Eli's guidance. In those days, a from was rare — visions were not common.
One night, Eli was lying down in eyesight had gotten so bad he could barely see.
The of had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in where the of was kept.
Then Yahweh out, "Samuel!" And Samuel answered, "I'm here!"
He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am — you called me." But Eli said, "I didn't call you. Go back and lie down." So he went back and lay down.
Yahweh called again, "Samuel!" So Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, "Here I am — you called me." But Eli said, "I didn't call you, my Go back and lie down."
Now Samuel didn't yet — Yahweh's word had never come directly to him before.
Yahweh called Samuel a third time. He got up, went to Eli, and said, "Here I am — you called me." Then Eli realized that it was Yahweh calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down. If he calls you again, say, 'Speak, Yahweh — your is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Then Yahweh and there, calling just as before, And said, "Speak — your servant is listening."
Yahweh said to Samuel, "Pay attention — I'm about to do something in Israel that will the of everyone who hears about it
On that day, I will carry out against Eli everything I said about his family — start to finish.
I told him that I would his family permanently, because he knew his sons were a on and he did nothing to stop them.
And so I've sworn to Eli's family: the of Eli's household will never be by sacrifice or offering — ever.
Samuel lay there until morning, then opened the doors of Yahweh's house. He was afraid to tell Eli about the
But Eli called to him, "Samuel, my son!" Samuel answered, "I'm here."
Eli said, "What did he say to you? Don't hide anything from me. May with you — and then some — if you hide a single word of what he said to you."
So Samuel told him everything and didn't hide a single thing. Eli said, "He is Let him do what he as
Samuel grew up, and Yahweh was with him. He of to the
All of Israel, from to recognized that Samuel had been confirmed as Yahweh's
And Yahweh continued to at because there Yahweh to Samuel