Lives of Scripture

Hophni, with his brother Phinehas, served as a priest under their father Eli at the tabernacle in Shiloh, but Scripture bluntly calls them "worthless men" who "did not know the LORD" (1 Samuel 2:12). They abused their priestly office by taking meat from worshipers' sacrifices by force before it was properly offered to God, seizing the choicest portions for themselves in defiance of the law's provisions for the priesthood (2:13-17). A man of God warned Eli that because he honored his sons above God and failed to restrain them, both would die on the same day as a sign of coming judgment on his entire priestly line (2:27-34). When Israel went to battle against the Philistines at Aphek and suffered defeat, the elders brought the ark of the covenant into camp, treating it as a talisman rather than trusting God Himself; Hophni and Phinehas carried it out with them (4:1-4). Israel was routed, the ark was captured, and both brothers were killed in the battle, fulfilling the prophecy exactly (4:10-11). When the news reached Eli, he fell backward from his seat and died; Phinehas's wife, hearing of the ark's capture and her husband's and father-in-law's deaths, named her newborn son Ichabod, "the glory has departed from Israel" (4:18-22).