This page gives you ready-to-use study questions for 1 Samuel 2, with leader’s notes for each one. It suits a small group, a Sunday class or personal reflection. The chapter sets Hannah’s song of thanksgiving beside the corrupt priesthood of Eli’s sons, and the questions move from what the text says, to what it means, to how it shapes daily life.
1 Samuel 2 at a Glance
The chapter opens with Hannah’s prayer of praise after God answered her plea for a son. Her song celebrates a God who humbles the proud and lifts the poor, and it points toward a coming king. Then the scene shifts to Shiloh, where Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, abuse their priestly office, while the young Samuel grows in the presence of the LORD.
The closing section brings a messenger from God to Eli, announcing judgment on his household and the raising up of a faithful priest. Read together, the two halves contrast a humble, dependent faith with a self-serving religion that has lost its reverence for God.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers interpretation. Ask the group to point to the words on the page, and resist explaining until the details are on the table. Short answers are fine, and a quick re-read of the cited verses often settles disagreements.
1 Samuel 2:1-2
1 Hannah prayed, and said: “My heart exults in the LORD! My horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. 2 There is no one as holy as the LORD, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
(WEB)
Reading Hannah’s opening praise at the start of the session sets the tone. It shows a heart that rejoices in God before any answer is complete, and it gives the group a reason to sing back to him.
1 Samuel 2:6-8
6 “The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. 7 The LORD makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. 8 He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s. He has set the world on them.
(WEB)
This passage holds Hannah’s central claim that God makes and unmakes, lifts and humbles. Reading it aloud helps the group hear the sovereignty that frames the rest of the chapter.
1 Samuel 2:12-17
12 Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know the LORD. 13 The custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the meat was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand; 14 and he stabbed it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot. The priest took all that the fork brought up for himself. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15 Yes, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.” 16 If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires”; then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” 17 The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men despised the offering of the LORD.
(WEB)
These verses describe Eli’s sons and their corrupt practice at the altar. Reading them in full lets the group see the contrast with Hannah and sets up the discussion of reverence in worship.
1 Samuel 2:18-21
18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod. 19 Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May the LORD give you offspring from this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD.” Then they went to their own home. 21 The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.
(WEB)
This passage shows Samuel serving faithfully as a child and God blessing Hannah with more children. Reading it aloud reminds the group that God honors faithful service in quiet, ordinary ways.
1 Samuel 2:30-35
30 “Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever.’ But now the LORD says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be cursed. 31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 You will see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I will give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33 The man of yours, whom I don’t cut off from my altar, will consume your eyes and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house will die in the flower of their age. 34 “‘This will be the sign to you, that will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die. 35 I will raise me up a faithful priest, that will do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he will walk before my anointed forever.
(WEB)
The message of judgment and the promise of a faithful priest closes the chapter with a turn toward hope. Reading it last leaves the group with a forward-looking vision that invites reflection and response.
Memory Verse for 1 Samuel 2
1 Samuel 2:30
“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever.’ But now the LORD says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be cursed.
(WEB)
This verse is a clear summary of the chapter’s moral center: God honors those who honor him, and those who despise him will be cursed. Memorizing it gives the group a sharp reminder that reverence for God shapes the whole of life.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you as Hannah did, with hearts that are often full of our own burdens and our own pride. Thank you that you humble the proud and lift the poor, and that nothing in our lives is hidden from your sight. Give us the reverence Samuel showed as a young servant, and keep us from the careless contempt that marked Eli’s sons. Where we have grown proud in speech or in service, turn our hearts back to you. Raise up in us a faithful spirit, and let our lives honor you in all we do. Amen.
