rought up, the priest
took to himself. Thus did they to all Israel that came to Silo.

2:15. Also before they burnt the fat, the servant of the priest came,
and said to the man that sacrificed: Give me flesh to boil for the
priest: for I will not take of thee sodden flesh, but raw.

2:16. And he that sacrificed said to him: Let the fat first be burnt to
day, according to the custom, and then take to thee as much as thy soul
desireth. But he answered, and said to him: Not so: but thou shalt give
it me now, or else I will take it by force.

2:17. Wherefore the sin of the young men was exceeding great before the
Lord: because they withdrew men from the sacrifice of the Lord.

2:18. But Samuel ministered before the face of the Lord: being a child
girded with a linen ephod.

2:19. And his mother made him a little coat, which she brought to him on
the appointed days, when she went up with her husband, to offer the
solemn sacrifice.

2:20. And Heli blessed Elcana and his wife: and he said to him: The Lord
give thee seed of this woman, for the loan thou hast lent to the Lord.
And they went to their own home.

2:21. And the Lord visited Anna, and she conceived, and bore three sons,
and two daughters: and the child Samuel became great before the Lord.

2:22. Now Heli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all
Israel: and how they lay with the women that waited at the door of the
tabernacle:

2:23. And he said to them: Why do ye these kinds of things, which I
hear, very wicked things, from all the people?

2:24. Do not so, my sons: for it is no good report that I hear, that you
make the people of the Lord to transgress.

2:25. If one man shall sin against another, God may be appeased in his
behalf: but if a man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?
And they hearkened not to the voice of their father, because the Lord
would slay them.

Who shall pray for him... By this word Heli would have his sons
understand, that by their wicked abuse of sacred things, and of the very
sacrifices which were appointed to appease the Lord, they deprived
themselves of the ordinary means of reconciliation with God; which was
by sacrifices. The more, because they were the chief priests whose
business it was to intercede for all others, they had no other to offer
sacrifices and to make atonement for them. Ibid. Because the Lord would
slay them... In consequence of their manifold sacrileges, he would not
soften t