Eli the high priest had two sons who were a disgrace to everything he stood for. Hophni and Phinehas served at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, but they used their priestly office as a license for corruption. They stole the choicest portions of sacrificial offerings. They forced themselves on women who came to worship at God's sanctuary. Josephus does not mince words—their entire lives amounted to tyranny.
Eli rebuked them, but his words had no force. He knew, with a prophet's certainty, that punishment was coming. And it was during this same dark period that God chose to raise up something extraordinary from the most unlikely place.
Elkanah, a Levite of modest standing from Ramathaim in the territory of Ephraim, had two wives. Peninnah had borne him children. Hannah, the wife he loved most, had none. Every year at the festival in Shiloh, Hannah watched Peninnah's children gather around their mother while she sat empty-handed. The grief finally broke her. She went to the Tabernacle, weeping, and prayed for a son—vowing that if God answered, she would dedicate the child entirely to His service (1 Samuel 1:11).
Eli saw her lips moving without sound and assumed she was drunk. When she explained her anguish, he blessed her and told her God would grant her request. She left full of hope. Within the year, Samuel was born—his name meaning "asked of God." True to her vow, Hannah brought him to the Tabernacle as soon as he was weaned and left him in Eli's care. The boy's hair was never cut. He drank only water. He grew up inside the sanctuary itself.
At twelve years old, Samuel received his first prophecy. God called his name in the night—three times—and each time the boy ran to Eli, thinking the old priest had summoned him. On the third time, Eli understood. "It is God who calls you," he said. "Answer Him." What God told Samuel was devastating: Eli's sons would die on the same day, and the priesthood would be stripped from his family forever, because Eli had loved his sons more than he loved God's worship. Eli made Samuel repeat every word. The old man accepted it without protest. And from that night forward, everything Samuel prophesied came true (1 Samuel 3:19).