Eli Rebukes His Evil Sons

22 Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel and that they were having sexual relations with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of assembly.t 23 And he asked them, “Why are you doing all these things that I am hearing, namely, your evil dealings with all these people? 24 No, my sons, the report is not good that I am hearing the people of Yahweh spreading. 25 If a man sins against a man, then God can intercede for him. But if a man sins against Yahweh, who can intercede for him?” But they did not ⌊obey⌋u their father, because Yahweh wanted to kill them. 26 But the boy Samuel ⌊continued to grow in stature and in favor⌋v with Yahweh and with the people.

Yahweh Rebukes Eli

27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him: “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your ancestorw when they were in Egypt under the house of Pharaoh? 28 And I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be a priest to me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to bear an ephod before me. I gave to the house of your ancestorx all the offerings made by fire by the ⌊Israelites⌋.y 29 Why do you despise my sacrifice and my offering which I commanded for my dwelling place, while you honored your sons more than me by making yourselves fat from the best of all the offerings of my people Israel? 30 Therefore,’ ⌊declares⌋z Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘though I solemnly said that your house and the house of your ancestora would walk before me forever, but now,’ ⌊declares⌋b Yahweh, ‘far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, I will treat with contempt! 31 Look, days are coming when I will cut off your ⌊strength⌋c and the ⌊strength⌋d of the house of your ancestore ⌊so that no one in your house will live to old age⌋.f 32 You will look at the distress of my dwelling place, despite all the good caused for Israel, but there will never be an old man in your household ⌊forever⌋!g 33 The only one I will not cut off from my altar is you.h Rather, to cause your eyes to fail and to cause your soul to grieve, ⌊all the members of your household⌋i will die as men.j 34 This is the sign for you that will come regarding your two sons Hophni and Phinehas: they will both die on the same day! 35 But I will raise up for myself a reliablek priest; he will do just according to what is in my heart and in my soul. I will build for him a lastingl house and he will walk continually before my anointed one ⌊forever⌋.m 36 All the remainder of your household will come to bow down ⌊before⌋n him for a bit of silver or a loaf of bread and will say, “Please assign me to one of the ⌊priestly offices⌋o so that I can eat a morsel of bread.” ’ ”