Who was Eli in the Bible?
Eli appears at the opening of 1 Samuel as the man holding Israel's highest religious office at a time when the nation was drifting, and his story is one of real godliness paired with a fatal unwillingness to act. He is remembered both as the man who taught the boy Samuel to answer God's voice and as the father whose refusal to discipline his sons brought his whole house down.
Priest and Judge
Eli held two roles at once. He was high priest, and he also served as one of the judges — the leaders God raised up to rescue Israel between the days of Joshua and the days of the kings.
H. L. RossierThe Book of Samuel is the continuation of the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth. As it opens, the period of the Judges is not yet over: Eli the priest was one of these judges (1 Sam. 4:18), and Samuel, the first prophet (Acts 3:24; Acts 13:20), was also a judge over Israel (1 Sam. 7:6).
The record of his life is short and sobering.
Morrish Bible DictionaryHe had judged Israel forty years and was 98 years old. 1 Sam. 1 – 1 Sam. 4. Abiathar his descendant was thrust from the priesthood by Solomon so that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled which He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. 1 Kings 2:27.
A Genuinely Godly Man
Eli was not a hypocrite. Two moments prove it: how he took the news of God's judgment on his own family, and what finally killed him.
The Bible TreasuryBut let it not be supposed that in saying this any doubt is entertained about this venerable man's piety. What else prompted his reply when Samuel, at his earnest request, told him every word of the terrible judgment which God had pronounced on his house for ever? "It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him." And when the messenger returned from the fatal battle with the Philistines, he bore up under all the sorrowful news until he heard that the ark was taken.
The Father Who Would Not Restrain
His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests who stole the best of the sacrifices and lived immoral lives. Eli knew, and spoke to them — but that was as far as he went. Commentators are united that this, not any personal scandal, was his ruin.
H. L. RossierEli knew the evil, and he had authority to repress it in his sons, but he did not use it. What good was it to him that this authority had been entrusted to him by God? How often the spiritual weakening of the head of a family comes from his slackness when he should have maintained order and discipline in the area where his authority was meant to work.
One writer draws the connection between how Eli died and what he neglected.
C. H. MackintoshEli should have restrained his sons… but he did not do this, and so his terrible end was that he broke his neck about the house of God, because he had not broken his heart about his own house.
Severe with the Innocent, Soft with the Guilty
Eli's judgment ran the wrong way. He wrongly accused Hannah of being drunk while she prayed silently at the tabernacle, yet he only mildly scolded the sons who were disgracing God's altar.
C KnappHow easy and natural it is to be lenient with ourselves and our own children — who are, after all, only our second selves — while we are all too ready to censure others severely, like Eli, who rudely rebuked poor, praying Hannah, and softly admonished his immoral sons.
The One Good Thing He Taught
When God called the boy Samuel in the night, Samuel thought it was Eli calling. It was Eli who recognised what was happening and told the child how to reply.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe word of Jehovah was precious: there was no open vision: the priest had failed. God called Samuel, but he supposed it was Eli. When this was repeated three times, Eli instructed him, if he was called again, to say, "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears."
The Judgment Carried Out
A prophet had told Eli that his two sons would die on the same day. The sentence was not exhausted in his lifetime.
Hamilton SmithThe later history gives the solemn fulfilment of these predictions. Hophni and Phinehas are killed in the conflict with the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:11); sixty years later the offspring of Eli's house was cut off by King Saul (1 Sam. 22:18); and one hundred years after the prediction the last of Eli's house was removed from being priest by King Solomon (1 Kings 2:27).
He died hearing the worst news of all.
C KnappEli "trembled for the ark of God," and it was when he heard that it was taken that his heart stopped beating, and he fell, never to rise again… to the aged priest it was the most tragic event of this dark and fatal day.
Summary
- Position — Eli was high priest and a judge of Israel for forty years, dying at ninety-eight.
- Piety — He was a real believer; his heart was more bound to the ark of God than to his own sons.
- Passivity — Piety was not enough. He knew the evil, held the authority to stop it, and did not use it.
- Partnership — Even in decline, God used him once well: he taught Samuel to say, "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears."
- Price — His neglect cost his sons, the ark, and a priestly line that was still being cut off a century later.