1 Samuel 2:18-26

18Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19Each year his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20And 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.1” Then they would go home.

21So 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.

22Now 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.

23“Why are you doing these things?” Eli said to his sons. “I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people. 24No, my sons; it is not a good report I hear circulating among the LORD’s people. 25If a man sins against another man, God2 can intercede for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?”

But they would not listen to their father, since the LORD intended to put them to death.

26And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man.