^13-14 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. ¹⁵ Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.

¹⁶ If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,^[a]” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”