1 Samuel 3:17 (DRB)

Passage

And he asked him: What is the word that the Lord hath spoken to thee? I beseech thee hide it not from me. May God do so and so to thee, and add so and so, if thou hide from me one word of all that were said to thee.

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 3:15 And Samuel slept till morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to tell the vision to Heli.

1 Samuel 3:16 Then Heli called Samuel, and said: Samuel, my son. And he answered: Here am I.

1 Samuel 3:17 And he asked him: What is the word that the Lord hath spoken to thee? I beseech thee hide it not from me. May God do so and so to thee, and add so and so, if thou hide from me one word of all that were said to thee.

1 Samuel 3:18 So Samuel told him all the words, and did not hide them from him. And he answered: It is the Lord: let him do what is good in his sight.

1 Samuel 3:19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and not one of his words fell to the ground.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "asked", "word", "lord", "hath", "spoken", "thee", and "beseech". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "asked" and "word", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "Then Heli called Samuel and said Samuel..." into verse 18's "So Samuel told him all the words...", so "asked" and "word" belong inside that flow. In 1 Samuel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "asked" and "word" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.