Bible Strands
1 Samuel 3:1
And the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. Now in those days the word of the LORD was rare, and visions were scarce.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator states that the boy Samuel ministered before Eli during a historical moment when the word of the LORD was rare and visions were scarce. This establishes the spiritual baseline before God initiates a new prophetic cycle.
The words — The Hebrew מְשָׁרֵת (me.sha.Ret) literally means serving, describing Samuel’s routine duties, while דְבַר (de.var) denotes the word of the LORD that had grown scarce. These terms ground the spiritual condition in concrete historical reality.
The thread — The text connects this period of divine silence to the prophetic famine in Amos 8:11 and the lament over absent prophets in Psalms 74:9, while resolving the tension in 1 Samuel 3:21 where God resumes appearing at Shiloh through Samuel. This shows the narrative arc from scarcity to restored revelation.
Why it lands — The text reports that divine communication had diminished before Samuel’s call, requiring the reader to acknowledge that prophetic authority emerges from God’s initiative rather than human expectation. It demands attention to the precise moment when God breaks silence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
Cross-references
- Amos 8:11 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
- Psalms 74:9 There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.
- 1 Samuel 3:21 And the LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, because there He revealed Himself to Samuel by His word.
- 1 Samuel 2:11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy began ministering to the LORD before Eli the priest.
- 1 Samuel 2:18 Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.
- 1 Samuel 3:15 Samuel lay down until the morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision,
- Isaiah 13:12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.