Lives of Scripture

Eli served as Israel's high priest and judge at Shiloh, where he first appears mistaking Hannah's silent, anguished prayer for drunkenness, then blessing her request for a son (1 Samuel 1:12-17). When Hannah's son Samuel was weaned, she brought him to serve under Eli at the tabernacle, and Eli effectively raised him (1 Samuel 1:24-28; 2:11). But Eli's own sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were corrupt priests who took the best portions of offerings by force and committed immorality with women serving at the tabernacle entrance; Eli rebuked them verbally but never removed them from office, and Scripture faults him for honoring his sons above God (1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25, 29). A man of God warned Eli that his sons would die on the same day and his priestly line would lose its privileged place, a judgment God repeated directly to the boy Samuel one night, confirming to Eli it would not be revoked (1 Samuel 2:27-36; 3:11-14). When the Philistines defeated Israel, captured the ark of the covenant, and killed both Hophni and Phinehas, a messenger ran to tell Eli; the news of the ark's capture, more than his sons' deaths, made the ninety-eight-year-old Eli fall backward off his seat, breaking his neck (1 Samuel 4:12-18).