called me?” But Heli replied: “I did not call thee, my son: return and sleep.”
So he returned and slept again. But the Lord called him a second time, and Samuel acted as before. Heli said: “I did not call thee, my son: return and sleep.” Then the Lord called Samuel a third time. And Samuel, rising up, went again to Heli, saying: “Here am I, for thou didst call me.” Heli now understood that the Lord had called the boy.
And he said to Samuel: “Go and sleep, and if He shall call thee anymore, thou shalt say: ‘Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth!’ ” So Samuel went and slept in his place. Then the Lord came and stood, and called: “Samuel, Samuel.” He answered: “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” The Lord spoke: “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, and whosoever shall hear it, both his ears shall tingle. In that day I will raise up against Heli all the things that I have spoken. I will begin and I will make an end, because he knew that his sons did wickedly, and he would not chastise them.”
Next morning, Heli asked the boy to tell him[1] what the Lord had said. But Samuel was afraid. Heli, however, insisted, and Samuel at length told the vision. Thereupon Heli humbly replied: “It is the Lord: let Him do what is good in His sight.”
And swiftly the judgment of God overtook the house of Heli. For it soon came to pass that the Philistines waged war against Israel, and when they joined battle the Israelites were defeated, and lost about four thousand men. After the people had returned to the camp, the ancients of Israel said: “Let us fetch the Ark [2] of the Covenant from Silo, that it may save us from the hands of our enemies.” They sent therefore to Silo, and the two sons of Heli, Ophni and Phinees, accompanied the Ark to the camp. The people, on beholding the Ark in their midst, set up a great shout, and the earth rang with their shouting.
- ↑ Tell him. He suspected that the revelation contained nothing that portended good to himself.
- ↑ Fetch the Ark. They wished to have the Ark of the Covenant with them, because they remembered the miracles which God had worked by means of it, both at the passage of the Jordan, and at the siege of Jericho, and they hoped that its sacred presence would now procure a victory for them.
