{"collection":"Hypertext Bible","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_sa1_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_sa1_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_bib_web_sa1_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/web/sa1.htm","summary":"This is the opening chapters of the Book of 1 Samuel, a narrative book of the Hebrew Bible belonging to the Deuteronomistic History tradition. The text follows three interlocking storylines: the barren Hannah's desperate prayer for a son, the granting of that prayer through the birth of Samuel, and the simultaneous corruption and impending downfall of the priestly house of Eli. A distinctive theological argument runs throughout \u2014 that divine favor operates through reversal, lifting up the humble and bringing down the powerful \u2014 articulated most explicitly in Hannah's psalm of praise (chapter 2), which declares that Yahweh kills and makes alive, impoverishes and enriches, and raises the poor from the dust to sit with princes. The text contrasts Samuel's growing divine favor with the degeneracy of Eli's sons, who abuse the sacrificial system and sleep with women at the sanctuary, while their father fails to restrain them. The narrative culminates in Samuel's inaugural prophetic call, during which Yahweh confirms the doom of Eli's priestly line \u2014 a judgment Eli accepts with resigned submission. Anyone interested in the origins of Israelite prophecy, the theology of divine reversal, or the literary sophistication of ancient Near Eastern narrative would find substantial material here.","tags":["English Bible Translations","Modern Bible Translations","New Testament"],"text":null,"title":"World English Bible: 1 Samuel","tradition":"Hypertext Bible","translated_text":null,"word_count":24717}