Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s tabernacle.

Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy served the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest.

or for the priests’ share of the sacrifices from the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling

and plunge it into the container or kettle or cauldron or cooking pot. The priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.

Even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast, because he won’t accept boiled meat from you—only raw.”

“‘Then I will raise up a faithful priest for Myself. He will do whatever is in My heart and mind. I will establish a lasting dynasty for him, and he will walk before My anointed one for all time.

“You will proceed from there until you come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one bringing three goats, one bringing three loaves of bread, and one bringing a skin of wine.

Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod, was also there. He was the son of Ahitub, the brother of Ichabod son of Phinehas, son of Eli the Lord’s priest at Shiloh. But the troops did not know that Jonathan had left.

While Saul spoke to the priest, the panic in the Philistine camp increased in intensity. So Saul said to the priest, “Stop what you’re doing.”

Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines tonight and plunder them until morning. Don’t let even one remain!”

“Do whatever you want,” the troops replied.

But the priest said, “We must consult God here.”

Then Saul gave up the pursuit of the Philistines, and the Philistines returned to their own territory.

When the Israelites returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.

David went to Ahimelech the priest at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”

David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place.

The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.”

So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.

The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.”

“There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”

The king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests in Nob. All of them came to the king.

When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.”

So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to engage the Philistines. Therefore, that place was named the Rock of Separation.

David said to Abiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought it to him,

They stopped because they were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor. David and 400 of the men continued in pursuit.