Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 5 July 2020
We’ve looked at the predicament that Hannah was in, how she cried out to God for a son, and how God answered her, and then how she praised God for this.
Today we move on from the character study on Hannah to a very different character study of three people under the authority and care of Eli the Priest of Israel.
First is Samuel, whose parents we’ve already met in chapter 1.
The other two are Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s sons, whom the writer of 1 Samuel chapter 2 clearly sets up as a foil to Samuel, bouncing back and forth between the faithful service of Samuel and the blasphemous profligacy of Eli’s sons.
Verse 11 opens with Elqanah and Hannah and the rest of the family leaving the tabernacle in Shiloh at the end of the Passover holidays and going back to their house in the hills of Ephraim. But they waved goodbye to Hannah’s little son Samuel and left him there at Shiloh to be raised by Eli the priest and to work in the tabernacle for the rest of his life. And so, in...
The title mishrat is used to describe Samuel’s position. It was used before in the Bible to describe
Joshua’s assistantship to Moses (Numbers 6:3, 11:28, Josh 1:1),
and later Abishag’s personal assistance to King David (1 Kings 1:15),
as well as the prophet Elisha’s assistant in Dothan (2 Kings 6:15).
This gives us some context for understanding the kind of “ministry” Samuel started out with.
He probably carried water from a creek or well to keep the washbasins full,
scrubbed blood and guts off the floor around the altar,
washed clothes for the priests to keep them white,
learned the procedures of how to butcher animals for sacrifice,
prepared parchment scrolls from the animal skins,
read and copied and memorized Job and the books of Moses,
learned how to make God’s special incense
and how to tend the lamps and other things inside the holy places,
learned the names and the concerns of each family that came to worship the Lord there
and how to comfort and encourage them and how to use God’s word to make fair judgments in legal cases.
The tasks probably started out pretty menial, but he was a priest-in-training.
Three things are stated of Hophni and Phineas in this verse:
one that they were the sons of Eli. That meant they were under his authority and it was their privilege to learn the ways of the priesthood from their father.
Second they are called in Hebrew Beni-Belial “Sons of Worthlessness.”
This doesn’t mean they were worthless, but that they invested their lives in what is worthless, indulging in violations of the Ten Commandments.
This is a description of their character as being opposed to God.
The third statement in v.12 flows from this, that they did not “know/have regard for Yahweh.”
What did that knowledge consist of? Deut. 4:39 “And you must know today and you must think it over in your heart that Jehovah Himself is The God in the heavens above and over the earth beneath; there is not another.” (NAW)
Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” But the verses 13-22 outline at least four ways in which Hophni and Phineas disobeyed God’s commands:
The meatfork was three-pronged and was made of bronze about 300 years ago by Bezalel for sacred use (Exod. 27:3; 38:3; Num. 4:14; 2 Chr. 4:16).
The instructions in the book of Leviticus (7:31) indicate that the priests should have already taken their priestly portions of the breast and right thigh from the fellowship offerings, so the rest of the meat that went into the pot was rightly for the worshippers to split among themselves. By sending their priestly assistants around to get more meat out of the cooking pots of the worshippers was greedy of the priests. They were trying to take more than their God-ordained share.
The way it was supposed to go is described later in King Josiah’s time in 2 Chron. 35:11-14 “And they slaughtered the Passover offerings; and the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands, while the Levites skinned the animals. Then they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle. Also they roasted the Passover offerings with fire according to the ordinance; but the other holy offerings they boiled in pots, in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them quickly among all the lay people. Then afterward they prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering burnt offerings and fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.” (NKJV1)
Notice that the good priests in Josiah’s day were so preoccupied with leading the worship of God in the sacrificial ceremonies that they weren’t even hardly thinking about what portions they were going to get. Their assistant Levites served all the worshippers first before serving themselves and the priests, and the priests didn’t get their portion until the day was gone and it was night-time. That kind of attitude of focusing entirely on worshipping God and not worrying what you get in return is the attitude that pleases God.
This is different from the way the sons of Eli administrated things. According to Ezekiel 46, the serving-boys were supposed to be the ones cooking the meat for the people and serving them, but Eli’s sons did not have a heart for serving, they merely employed their assistants in taking food away from people.
There also seems to be something disorderly about the mention of all the different kinds of cooking pots that people were using to cook their fellowship meals on the tabernacle grounds.
The “kiyyor/basin/pan” that tops the list in v.14 appears to be the very bronze laver which God commanded to be kept beside the altar for washing with holy water; I don’t see that Hebrew word used to describe anything else in the Bible,
so it paints a picture of every-man-for-himself grabbing whatever he could find of the holy utensils and using them however they wanted – reminiscent of the comment in Judges that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This kind of lackadaisical approach to the worship of God allowed by Eli and his sons was offensive to God.
Not only did the priests steal extra meat from the worshippers while they were cooking their fellowship meals, these priests also demanded raw meat before it had been sacrificed. And if the worshipper tried to tell them that they were supposed to offer the fat up on the altar first before they took servings to eat for themselves, the priests would simply take the meat by force rather than respond to the admonition.
Do you see the attitude here? “God can wait. I want my roast beef NOW! I’ll take care of God’s interests later.”
The Lord of Hosts and King of Kings deserves our first and our best. Thank God we don’t have to worship Him anymore by sticking big handfulls of fat into bonfires, but when we decide to allocate our paychecks for all our needs first, figuring we’ll give God what’s left over – if there is anything left, that is an insult that He doesn’t take lightly.
When we cut corners with worship, not preparing our hearts beforehand,
arriving late/leaving early,
declining to sing,
surfing or texting or daydreaming during the prayers and study of God’s word,
forgetting our tithes and offerings,
our personal God feels those things as insults.
He is quick to forgive those who catch themselves doing those things and who ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus, but those who continue in this guilty behavior will not go unpunished by Him, and we’ll see how that comes to pass in the case of Hophni and Phineas later on in 1 Samuel.
There is clearly a plurality of priests, so the priests could be Hophni and Phineas.
The word translated “young men” in this verse is the exact same word in Hebrew as the word translated “child/boy” in v.11 to describe Samuel and the exact same word in vs. 13 & 15 translated “servant.” This raises the issue that Samuel was probably tangled up in this. He was one of those serving-boys being sent to sabotage the Lord’s sacrifices through the priest’s greed. The Bible doesn’t tell us any more about what he did about it, but it is likely that he is the one writing this narrative later in life, and he clearly shows this gluttony to be wrong.
The comment we get later on about how fat Eli was seem to be perjorative rather than merely describing an illness, so there seems to have been in Eli a lack of self-control around food that his sons took to extremes.
It extended to the minchah grain offerings as well. Verse 17 mentions that they showed contempt/desecrated/abhorred/despised them. It seems to me that our author is adding to the list of offenses by mentioning that the priests had a similar attitude toward the bread and grain and oil and fruit offerings as they had toward the animal sacrifices. “What’s in it for me? Let me take what I want when I want it before I worry about what God’s gonna get. Worship can wait; we eat first, and if you goodie-goodies try to get all high and mighty with us, we have ways of keeping you quiet.”
In this verse it’s called a “sin” that was “very great” - it’s a “big deal” to offend God!
According to the oldest-known manuscript of this passage, Eli was 90 years old, so he wasn’t able to do much of the manual labor of wrangling sacrificial animals, but he had heard bad things about his sons. Why he had only heard of them and not seen them himself seems to me to be another clue as to the carelessness which which he was allowing the tabernacle to be run. His seat was at the entrance to the tabernacle, according to chapter 1, and, even if he was as blind as a bat due to old age, he shouldn’t have been able to fail to notice that his sons were making out with women right there at the entrance to the tabernacle.
This sordid detail does not appear in the oldest manuscripts of this verse, but it illustrates further the fact that Hophni and Phineas were controlled by the lusts of their flesh and were focused on what physical pleasure they could get for themselves in their job as priests rather than on what glory they could give to God.
Think of the frustrations Samuel must have felt growing up and seeing this kind of behavior. I remember when I was attending a Christian college, overhearing a group of guys laughing as they talked about seducing high school girls who came to visit the Christian college. The horror of what I was hearing left me speechless. This is not coming-of-age behavior for God’s people. This is sick! But from my experience in ministry with many Christian colleges, it is par for the course. God have mercy!
Now, what was a women’s auxiliary doing serving at the door of the tabernacle in the first place?
The only other place these women are mentioned is in Exodus 38:8, which says that this corps of women who served at the door donated a bunch of bronze mirrors for Bezalel to make the bronze laver with for washing there at the door.
Numbers 8:24 also mentions that every Levite between the ages of 25 and 50 was supposed to work (on a rotating basis) as staff/servers/auxiliary on the temple grounds, and the doorway was where the sacrifices happened, so it appears that there were female Levites among them.
John Gill suggested in his commentary that they focused on praying, like Anna in the New Testament, and this seems likely to me2.
But sexual immorality was what they did in pagan temples, never in the house of God!
And so it was that Eli finally gave his sons a talking-to, but it was not very effective.
He waited until far too late to address the selfishness and lust and gluttony and carelessness and profanity of his sons. These things need to be noticed at an early age and disciplined quickly and lovingly.
But now these were grown, married men, committing adultery and dishonoring God in worship. These were crimes worthy of death; Eli merely gave them a scolding.
This is a decent question to ask when you catch yourself sinning, as long as it is a sincere question that you come up with an answer for rather than just a rhetorical question to cast shame.
When you commit sin against God, there are reasons behind that sin which you can ferret out and work on in order to become free from the control of that sin.
I experienced a real breakthrough in my spiritual life a couple of years ago when somebody suggested that the reason I kept falling into a particular sin pattern was that I was indulging in self-pity. Up to that point, I knew that my sin pattern was sinful, but I kept suddenly finding myself doing that sin anyway. It felt like the desire to sin just came out of the blue. But as I asked myself the question, “Why do I fall into that sin?” and as I started trying to see if the cause was self-pity, it suddenly began to make a lot of sense. I was going along, being a good person, making sacrifices for the sake of others, and then something unjust or unfair would happen to me, and I would feel like I deserved better than that. But I’d keep on trying to be a good person and keep making sacrifices for others, and then something else would happen that made me feel like I was having to deny myself a little more than my fair share. After a while, I would get so bitter at God for not giving me what I thought I deserved that I would eventually snap and live out a rebellious streak until my conscience couldn’t take that anymore, and then I’d get all contrite and want to get right with God again... and then the cycle would start all over again. Once I realized why I was sinning, I began attacking the little bad attitudes when they started so that I never got to the point of acting out in bitterness. Figuring out why I was sinning was strategic.
So, why were Eli’s sons sinning? They didn’t know God. And since they didn’t know God, they didn’t respect Him. And since they didn’t respect Him, they didn’t pay attention to His word or try to obey His commands. They didn’t see Him as worth anything, so they had no desire to worship Him and bring order and holiness and purity to the tabernacle. As far as they were concerned, there was no God, so life was all about getting food and women and power for themselves. From a human point of view, that’s why they didn’t listen to their dad’s rebuke in v.25.
Eli’s main point however, was...
Now, on the one hand, this can be a good argument because God gives us accountability in the context of community.
Jesus said in Matthew 18 that if your brother sins against you, you are to go confront him about it.
The Proverbs are full of wise advice to pay attention when someone rebukes you.
Note how Eli qualifies his statement that it is “among the people of God” that they’ve gotten a bad reputation.
It’s important that you are part of a church that can hold you accountable to God’s word.
And when you become aware that brothers and sisters in Christ around you are concerned that you’re doing something wrong, don’t bristle and get all defensive; rather, ask questions and try to understand what they are concerned about.
Often they are looking out for your best interest and it will really help if you can address the issue.
On the other hand, it is possible to pay too much attention to your reputation among other people. Sometimes “we must obey God rather than men.” Sometimes even the people of God get mixed up, and you have to set your “face like flint” and obey God against the world.
Just think what would have happened if Daniel had said, “Oops, I’d better not pray to God today, ‘cause it’s against the law now!”
And what if Jesus had said to His disciples, “Guys, you’ve got a point. Maybe we shouldn’t go to Jerusalem after all.”
Or if Paul had said, “Hey, we’ve got to tone down this gospel thing. Our church authorities are telling us not to mention the name of Jesus Christ any more.”
So this is a principle which requires wisdom. Don’t assume everybody else is wrong until you’ve given a fair hearing – especially to the Christians in your life. But if God’s word is clear on the matter, you can go against the mainstream with a clear conscience.
I suspect, however, in the case of Hophni and Phineas, that social pressure was the only thing that might sway them, but Eli recognized that ultimately they had to deal with their broken relationship with God if they were going to get right at all, so he concluded his exhortation:
Job said something similar in his book: "...how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. (Job 9:2-3) … If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, Yet You will plunge me into the pit… For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. (Job 9:30-33) … Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor! (Job 16:21) ... How then can man be righteous before God? ... If even ... the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man...?" (Job 25:4-6, NKJV)
Here is the basic problem of mankind: If there is a God and if we have gotten crosswise with Him, what can possibly be done about it? You can’t go up to heaven and work it out. You can’t bring Him down to your level. God “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7, KJV). “All are without excuse” because everyone can clearly see His “eternal power and divine nature” in the physical creation, and yet we still don’t give Him the glory and thanks He deserves (Rom 1:20-21).
Do you realize the awful position you are in as a sinner “in the hands of an angry God,” unable to do anything to appease His wrath except suffer eternally in hell to pay for the magnitude of your sin in insulting His glory?
That point has to be made, but that’s only the beginning of God’s message to us. Eli apparently stopped short of sharing the whole message with his sons. God’s word doesn’t stop with, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” (Rom 3:23) what’s it say in the next verse? We are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness... that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:24-26, NKJV)
Folks, be sure you share the whole message with your family and friends and co-workers. Parents, be sure that you preach the Gospel to you children rather than merely impressing upon them how bad they’ve been.
The good news is that there IS some one who will intercede between man and God, and that is Jesus, the Son of God who took on human flesh, the God-Man with the perfect qualifications to reach one hand out to sinful human beings and the other hand out to God Almighty and draw us together! (1 Tim. 2:5)
He did this through “propitiating” God’s wrath against our offenses by dying in our place and shedding His blood on the cross to pay for our sin, He “became sin” that we might become right with God; He is “the justifier,” the one who makes right, and the book of Hebrews (7:25) says that Jesus’ life mission right now is to “intercede” for us before God!
“If a man sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?” Jesus can and does.
But Jesus only saves those who trust Him to make them right with God.
So He’s not going to save folks like Eli’s sons who don’t give a rip. There are folks who are going to end up in the lake of fire.
This passage and others like it, from God hardening Pharoah’s heart in Exodus to God making “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” in Romans 9:22, make it sound like we’re all puppets controlled by God, and if God wants you to be destroyed then no matter how much you want to be saved, your fate is destruction.
Eli’s sons – nor any other reprobate – are going to see it that way. Hophni & Phinehas loved steak, women, and power more than God. As far as they were concerned, they chose to despise God and heartily approved of their profane ways. They would tell you that they were no puppets. They chose their own way in this world, and indeed they did. God held them responsible for those choices which they made. God’s punishment affirms that He saw their actions as their choices for which He could hold them accountable.
Andrew Willett commented: “that sin... is called in the newe Testament, sin or ‘blasphemie against the holy Ghost’ (Mk. 3:29) ... For if any wilfully and malitiously doe sin against God, contemning his word, there is no mediation or intercession left for him... Of this sin of obstinacie and malitious contempt speaketh Moses, that, he that doth any thing ‘with an high hand,’ and blasphemeth the Lord, should be cut off from among his people (Num. 15:30), that is, without redemption. Such are saide to ‘prouoke the Lord to anger,’ (Jer. 7.18), for such the Prophet is forbidden to pray, (Jer. 11:14& 14:11). And this is that sin, which the Apostle calleth a ‘treading under foote the son of God, and a despiting of the spirit of grace’ (Heb. 10:26).”
And yet, back of their fierce independence, God was still working all things together (Rom. 8:28). He had a new priest in mind. He had a king in mind. He had a setup for the Messiah in mind, and this sovereign God who lifts up the poor and brings low the haughty explains the apostacy of Hophni and Phineas in terms of His desire to remove them. There is a mystery in the interplay of God’s sovereignty and Man’s responsibility, but both are affirmed in Scripture.3
So here’s the profile of Hophni and Phineas, the priests who stole from God’s people, stole from God, desecrated the offerings through their laziness and greed, and committed adultery.
Men for whom, humanly speaking, forgiveness was theirs for the asking if they would only repent of their sins and look to their Messiah to make them right with God. But they would have nothing of it and God wasn’t giving them any of it.
Learn a lesson from them, exercise self-discipline over your flesh, give God the careful attention He deserves in worship, and when you mess up, heed correction and go to Jesus to make things right again!
LXX |
Brenton (LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
Masoretic Txt |
11 [Καὶ κατέλιπον αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ ἐνώπιον κυρίου] καὶ ἀπῆλθον X εἰς Αρμαθαιμ X X, καὶ τὸ παιδάριον ἦν λειτουργῶν τῷ [προσώπῳB] κυρίου ἐνώπιον Ηλι τοῦ ἱερέως |
[Then she left him X X X] 11 and X departed to X X Armathaim: and the child ministered [in the presence] of the Lord before Heli the priest. |
11 And Elcana went to Ramatha, to his house: but the child ministered [in the sight] of the Lord before the face of Heli the priest. |
11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the LORD beforeC Eli the priest. |
11 So Elqanah went to his house on The Heights, and the boy became a minister of Yahweh in the presence of Eli the Priest. |
(יא) וַיֵּלֶךְ אֶלְקָנָה הָרָמָתָה עַל בֵּיתוֹ וְהַנַּעַר הָיָה מְשָׁרֵת אֶת יְהוָה אֶת פְּנֵי עֵלִי הַכֹּהֵן. |
12 Καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Ηλι τοῦ ἱερέως υἱοὶ λοιμοὶD οὐκ εἰδότες τὸν κύριον. |
12 And the sons of Heli the priest were evil sons, not knowing the Lord. |
12 Now the sons of Heli were children of Belial, not knowing the Lord, |
12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD. |
12 The sons of Eli, however, were ungodly characters; they did not know Yahweh. |
(יב) וּבְנֵי עֵלִי בְּנֵי בְלִיָּעַלE לֹא יָדְעוּ אֶת יְהוָה. |
13 καὶ τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ ἱερέως παρὰ τοῦ λαοῦ, παντὸς X τοῦ θύοντος· X καὶ ἤρχετο τὸ παιδάριον τοῦ ἱερέως, ὡς ἂν ἡψήθη τὸ κρέας, καὶ κρεάγρα τριόδους ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, |
13 And the priest's claim from every one of the people that sacrificed was this: the servant of the priest came when the flesh was in seething, and a flesh-hook of three teeth was in his hand. |
13 Nor the office of the priests to the people: but whosoever had offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest came, while the flesh was in boiling, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand, |
13 And the priests' custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; |
13 Now, the priests’ regulation for the people – every man sacrificing an animal-sacrifice – was that, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s serving-boy would go with the trident meatfork in his hand, |
(יג) וּמִשְׁפַּט הַכֹּהֲנִים אֶת הָעָם כָּל אִישׁ זֹבֵחַ זֶבַח וּבָא נַעַר הַכֹּהֵן כְּבַשֵּׁל הַבָּשָׂר וְהַמַּזְלֵג שְׁלֹשׁ הַשִּׁנַּיִם בְּיָדוֹ. |
14 καὶ ἐπάταξενF αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν λέβητα τὸν μέγαν ἢ εἰς τὸ χαλκίον ἢ εἰς τὴν κύθραν· πᾶν, ὃ ἐὰν ἀνέβη ἐν τῇ κρεάγρᾳ, ἐλάμβανεν ἑαυτῷ ὁ ἱερεύς· κατὰ τάδε ἐποίουν παντὶ Ισραηλ τοῖς ἐρχομένοις θῦσαιG κυρίῳ ἐν Σηλωμ. |
14 And he struck it into the great caldron, or into the brazen vessel, or into the pot, and whatever came up with the flesh-hook, the priest took for himself: so they did to all Israel that came to sacrifice to the Lord in Selom. |
14 And thrust it into the kettle, or into the cauldron, or into the pot, or into the pan: and all that the fleshhook brought up, the priest took to himself. Thus did they to all Israel that came X to Silo. |
14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. |
14 and he would stick it into the basin or into the kettle or into the stockpot or into the dutch-oven. Everything that the meatfork brought up the priest would take to himself. They acted like this toward all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. |
(יד) וְהִכָּה בַכִּיּוֹרH אוֹ בַדּוּדI אוֹ בַקַּלַּחַתJ אוֹ בַפָּרוּרK כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲלֶה הַמַּזְלֵג יִקַּח הַכֹּהֵן בּוֹ כָּכָה יַעֲשׂוּ לְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל הַבָּאִים שָׁם בְּשִׁלֹה. |
15 καὶ πρὶν θυμιαθῆναι τὸ στέαρ ἤρχετο τὸ παιδάριον τοῦ ἱερέως καὶ ἔλεγεν τῷ ἀνδρὶ τῷ θύοντι Δὸς κρέας ὀπτῆσαι τῷ ἱερεῖ, καὶ οὐ μὴ λάβωL παρὰ σοῦ ἑφθὸν ἐκ τοῦ λέβητος. |
15 And before the fat was burnt for a sweet savour, the servant of the priest would come, and say to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest, and I will by no means take of thee sodden flesh out of the caldron. |
15 Also before they burnt the fat, the servant of the priest came, and said to the man that sacrificed: Give me flesh to boil for the priest: for I will not take of thee sodden flesh, but raw. |
15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. |
15 Moreover, before they sent the fat up in smoke, the priest’s serving-boy would also go and say to the man who was doing an animal-sacrifice, “Give meat to the priest for a roast. I will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw. |
(טו) גַּם בְּטֶרֶם יַקְטִרוּן אֶת הַחֵלֶב וּבָא נַעַר הַכֹּהֵן וְאָמַר לָאִישׁ הַזֹּבֵחַ תְּנָה בָשָׂר לִצְלוֹת לַכֹּהֵן וְלֹא יִקַּח מִמְּךָ בָּשָׂר מְבֻשָּׁל כִּי אִם חָי. |
16
καὶ ἔλεγεν
ὁ ἀνὴρ |
16
And [if] the man
t |
16 And he that sacrificed said to him: Let the fat first be burnt to day, according to the custom, and then take to thee as much as thy soul desireth. But he answered, and said to him: Not so: but thou shalt give it me now, or else I will take it by force. |
16
And if
any man said unto him, Let them |
16 And should the man say to him, “The fat should really be sent up in smoke, as it is day, and then you should take {everything} for yourself – as much as your soul desires,” then he would say, “No, because you’re going to give it now, and if not, I take it by force.” |
(טז) וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִישׁN קַטֵּרO יַקְטִירוּןP כַּיּוֹם הַחֵלֶב וְקַח לְךָ Q כַּאֲשֶׁר תְּאַוֶּה נַפְשֶׁךָ וְאָמַר לוR כִּי עַתָּה תִתֵּן וְאִם לֹא לָקַחְתִּי בְחָזְקָה. |
17 καὶ ἦν ἡ ἁμαρτία τῶν παιδαρίων ἐνώπιον κυρίου μεγάλη σφόδρα, ὅτι ἠθέτουνS τὴν θυσίαν κυρίου. -- |
17 So the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for they set at nought the offering of the Lord. |
17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was exceeding great before the Lord: because they withdrew men from the sacrifice of the Lord. |
17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for menT abhorredU the offering of the LORD. |
17 So the sin of the serving-boys became very great before the face of Yahweh. They even desecrated Yahweh’s grain-offering. |
(יז) וַתְּהִי חַטַּאת הַנְּעָרִים גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד אֶת פְּנֵי יְהוָה כִּי נִאֲצוּ הָאֲנָשִׁיםV אֵת מִנְחַת יְהוָה. |
18 καὶ Σαμουηλ ἦν λειτουργῶν ἐνώπιον κυρίου παιδάριον περιεζωσμένον εφουδ βαρW, |
18 And Samuel ministered before the Lord, a child girt with a linen ephod. |
18 But Samuel ministered before the face of the Lord: being a child girded with a linen ephod. |
18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girdedX with a linen ephod. |
18 But as for Samuel, he was ministering before the face of Yahweh as a servant-boy with linen shoulder-gear strapped-on. |
(יח) וּשְׁמוּאֵל מְשָׁרֵת אֶת פְּנֵי יְהוָה נַעַר חָגוּרY אֵפוֹד בָּד. |
19 καὶ διπλοίδαZ μικρὰν ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνέφερεν αὐτῷ ἐξ ἡμερῶν εἰς ἡμέρας ἐν τῷ ἀναβαίνειν αὐτὴν μετὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς θῦσαι τὴν θυσίαν τῶν ἡμερῶν. |
19 And his mother made him a little doublet, and brought it to him from year to year, in her going up in company with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. |
19
And his mother made him a little coat,
which she brought to him on the appointed days, when she went up
with her husband, to offer the |
19 Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. |
19 And his mother made for him a little me’iyl and brought it up to him from holidays to holidays when she went up with her husband to sacrifice the holiday animal-sacrifice |
(יט) וּמְעִיל קָטֹן תַּעֲשֶׂה לּוֹ אִמּוֹ וְהַעַלְתָה לוֹ מִיָּמִים יָמִימָה בַּעֲלוֹתָהּ אֶת אִישָׁהּ לִזְבֹּחַ אֶת זֶבַח הַיָּמִים. |
20 καὶ εὐλόγησεν Ηλι τὸν Ελκανα καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ λέγων Ἀποτείσαι σοι κύριος σπέρμα ἐκ τῆς γυναικὸς ταύτης ἀντὶ τοῦ χρέους, οὗ ἔχρησας τῷ κυρίῳ. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ, |
20 And Heli blessed Helcana and his wife, saying The Lord recompense to thee seed of this woman, in return for the loan which thou hast lent to the Lord: and the man returned to his place. |
20 And Heli blessed Elcana and his wife: and he said to him: The Lord give thee seed of this woman, for the loan thou hast lent to the Lord. And they went to their own home. |
20
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and
said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is
lentAA
to the LORD. And they wentBB
unto |
20 Then Eli would bless Elqanah and his wife and say, “May Yahweh set up for you offspring from this woman in place of the requested one which you requested for Yahweh.” And then {the man} would go to his home. |
(כ) וּבֵרַךְ עֵלִי אֶת אֶלְקָנָה וְאֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאָמַר יָשֵׂםCC יְהוָה לְךָ זֶרַע מִן הָאִשָּׁה הַזֹּאת תַּחַת הַשְּׁאֵלָה אֲשֶׁר שָׁאַלDD לַיהוָה וְהָלְכוּEE לִמְקֹמוֹ. |
21 καὶ ἐπεσκέψατο κύριος τὴν Ανναν, καὶ ἔτεκεν ἔτι τρεῖς υἱοὺς καὶ δύο θυγατέρας. καὶ ἐμεγαλύνθηFF τὸ παιδάριον Σαμουηλ ἐνώπιον κυρίου. |
21 And the Lord visited Anna, and she bore yet three sons, and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord. |
21 And the Lord visited Anna, and she conceived, and bore three sons, and two daughters: and the child Samuel became great before the Lord. |
21 And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD. |
21 Well, Yahweh visited Hannah again, and she gave birth to three sons and two daughters! Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up with Yahweh. |
(כא) כִּיGG פָקַד יְהוָה אֶת חַנָּה וַתַּהַרHH וַתֵּלֶדII שְׁלֹשָׁה בָנִים וּשְׁתֵּי בָנוֹת וַיִּגְדַּל הַנַּעַרJJ שְׁמוּאֵל עִם יְהוָה. |
22 Καὶ Ηλι πρεσβύτης σφόδρα· καὶ ἤκουσεν X ἃ ἐποίουν οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ, |
22 And Heli was very old, and he heard what X his sons did to the children of Israel. |
22 Now Heli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel: and how they lay with the women that waited at the door of the tabernacle: |
22 Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the doorKK of the tabernacle of the congregation. |
22 Now, Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to the children of Israel [- particularly that they were lying with the women in the ladies’ auxili-ary at the entrance of the tent of meeting -], |
(כב) וְעֵלִי זָקֵן מְאֹדLL וְשָׁמַע אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשׂוּן בָּנָיו לְכָלMM יִשְׂרָאֵל [וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁכְּבוּן אֶת הַנָּשִׁים הַצֹּבְאוֹת פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד.]NN |
23
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς
Ἵνα τί ποιεῖτε
κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμα
τοῦτο, ὃ ἐγὼ
ἀκούω X X X
ἐκ [στόματος]
παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ
|
23
And he said to them, Why do ye according to
this thing,
which I hear X X X
from the [mouth] of
all the people of the |
23
And he said to them: Why do ye these kinds of
things,
which I hear, very wicked things,
from all |
23 And he said unto them, Why do ye X such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. |
23 and he said to them, “Why are y’all conducting affairs like these? Indeed, I am hearing of y’all’s affairs being evil from this people! |
(כג) וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם לָמָּה תַעֲשׂוּן כַּדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי שֹׁמֵעַ אֶתPP דִּבְרֵיכֶם רָעִים מֵאֵת כָּל הָעָם אֵלֶּה. |
24 μή, τέκνα, ὅτι οὐκ ἀγαθὴ ἡ ἀκοή, ἣν ἐγὼ ἀκούω· μὴ ποιεῖτε οὕτως, ὅτι οὐκ ἀγαθαὶ αἱ ἀκοαί, ἃς ἐγὼ ἀκούω, τοῦ μὴ δουλεύειν λαὸν θεῷ. |
24 Nay my sons, for the report which I hear is not good; do not so, for the reports which I hear are not good, so that the people do not serve God. |
24 Do not so, my sons: for it is no good report that I hear, that you make the people of the Lord to transgress. |
24 Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD'S people to transgressQQ. |
24 No, my sons, for the report is not good which I am hearing. {Stop doing thus, for the reports are not good which I am hearing} passed among the people of Yahweh. |
(כד) אַל בָּנָי כִּי לוֹא טוֹבָה הַשְּׁמֻעָה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי שֹׁמֵעַ מַעֲבִרִיםRR עַם יְהוָה. |
25 ἐὰν [ἁμαρτάνων] ἁμάρτῃ ἀνὴρ εἰς ἄνδρα, καὶ προσεύξονται ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πρὸς κύριον· καὶ ἐὰν τῷ κυρίῳ ἁμάρτῃ τίς προσεύξεται ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ; καὶ οὐκ ἤκουον τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν, ὅτι [βουλόμενος] ἐβούλετο κύριος διαφθεῖραι αὐτούς. -- |
25
If a man should [at all] sin
against |
25
If [one] man shall
sin against |
25
If [one] manSS
sin against |
25 If a man sins against a man, then they may appeal to Yahweh, but if a man sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?” However, they would not listen to the voice of their father because Yahweh desired to put them to death. |
(כה) אִם יֶחֱטָא אִישׁ לְאִישׁ וּפִלְלוֹ אֱלֹהִיםUU וְאִם לַיהוָה יֶחֱטָא אִישׁ מִי יִתְפַּלֶּל לוֹ וְלֹא יִשְׁמְעוּ לְקוֹל אֲבִיהֶםVV כִּי חָפֵץ יְהוָה לַהֲמִיתָם. |
1cf. Deut. ?:5-8, Ezekiel 46:19, Zech. 14:21
2JFB’s commentary suggested it was an “ascetic order.” Jewish tradition is that these were not Levites but rather lay women. Tsumura asserted in his NICOT commentary that they were Levites.
3Willett also gives good coverage of the interplay between God’s sovereignty and man’s will in Questions 9-10.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing any part of 1 Samuel 2 is 4Q51Samuela,
which contains fragments of vs. 1-10 and 16-36 (highlighted in
purple), and which has been dated between 50-25 B.C. Where the DSS
supports the LXX with text not in the MT, I have highlighted
with yellow the LXX and its translation into English.
BThe LXX, Vulgate, and NIV share this duplication of the single peni in the Masoretic text. Perhaps it was original. Unfortunately, the DSS is obliterated at this point.
C“Under” (NIV)/ “in the presence of” (ESV)
Dcf. synonyms from Aquila=αποστασιας (apostate) and Symmachus=ανυποτακτοι (insubordinate)
ESee note on 1:16 where Hannah is concerned not to be called a daughter of Belial
FCf. Aquila επλησσεν “he filled it up”
GSyriac & Targum supports the Septuagint with an infinitive here rather than the word “there”
HThe only other references to this utensil in the Pentateuch were to the bronze washbasin beside the altar.
IThe common denominator in all uses of this word (except perhaps Job) are that this utensil is used to carry other stuff (2Ki. 10:7; 2Ch. 35:13; Job 41:20; Psa. 81:6; Jer. 24:1,2)
JOnly here and Micah 3:3
KOnly found here, Numbers 11:8 (cooking manna cakes), and Judges 6:19 (broth in a contained utensil).
LSyriac & Vulgate support the LXX’s first person verb over the MT’s third person verb.
M“want” NIV / “wish” (ESV)
NThe Dead Sea scroll reads up to this point /hwkh run la rmaw vyah hnuw ( the m in rmaw is not visible in the scroll)
ODead Sea scroll has y at the beginning of this word which could match the passive form chosen by the LXX
PDead Sea scroll does not have this word but has instead /hwkh
QDSS & LXX insert “all”
RLXX, DSS, and Vulgate (followed by the NASB and NIV) read with the Qere “No” (לֹא) rather than the MT “to him.” To the ear both words sound the same.
SCf. Aq.=διεσuρον (drag across)
TNASB reads definite “the men” like the MT; NIV omits “men” like the LXX & DSS
U“Despised” (NASB) / “treat… with contempt” (NIV/ESV)
VThis word is not in the DSS or the LXX. It’s in the Vulgate, however.
WThis is a transliteration of the Hebrew; some manuscripts read “bar” others read “bad” as the resh and daleth are easy to confuse visually. Symmachus translated it “linen” and Aquila oddly επενδυμα εξαιρετον “outer garment removed”
XNASB & NIV “wearing” which is actually a different verb, but no practical difference to the American mind.
YDSS switches the order of the two middle letters of this word changing the root from “gird about” to “encircle around,” with no practical change in meaning. For other instances of the MT word, see Lev. 8:7 “Then he [Moses] put on him [Aaron] the tunic and girded him with the belt and dressed him with the cloak and put the shoulder-gear on him and strapped the band of the shoulder-gear on him and invested him with it,” and Lev. 16:4 “He must wear the holy linen tunic, and the linen underwear shall be over his body, and he shall be girded with the linen belt, and he shall wrap up with the linen priest-cap. They are the clothes of holiness, so he must bathe his body with water and then wear them.” (NAW) The only other person mentioned as wearing a linen ephod was David when he danced before the Lord in 2 Sam. 6:14 and 1 Chron 15:27 (the latter of which distinguishes the ephod from the robe). The ephod is never described in detail in the Bible as to what it is, but it was apparently strapped on over a robe, and it was a symbol of priesthood.
ZCf. Σ=εφεστριδα (“wrapover?) θ=επενδυτην (outer or middle-layer cloak)
AA“place…
dedicated”
(NASB) / “prayed…
gave”
(NIV)
/ “petition…
asked”
(ESV)
BBESV reads “return,” following the LXX instead of the MT’s “go.”
CCDSS adds one letter to this word which changes the meaning from “may he place” to “may he give peace”. The LXX and Vulgate support the MT here.
DDDSS renders this word in the Hiphil stem (as it appeared in chapter 1) rather than the Qal stem used here in the MT. The LXX supports the DSS in terms of the meaning of “giving the use of” rather than “asking for”.
EEDSS reads “the man went” (matching the LXX) rather than the MT’s “they went”
FFcf. synonym in Symmachus (Σ=ηυξησεν=augmented)
GGDSS (-’ו) & LXX read “and,” and the Syriac also seems to support this. The ESV reflects the MT with “indeed”
HHIn the DSS, this word is different: עוד "again,” and the LXX supports the DSS over the MT.
II“What is lent to the Lord will certainly be repaid with interest, to our unspeakable advantage, and oftentimes in kind. Hannah resigns one child to God, and is recompensed with five... There is nothing lost by lending to God or losing for him; it shall be repaid a hundred-fold, Mat_19:29.” ~Matthew Henry
JJThe DSS reads “there” instead of the MT and LXX “boy-child”.
KK“doorway” (NASB) / “entrance” (NIV/ESV)
LLDSS adds that he was “90 years old”
MMDSS matches LXX with “the sons of” rather than “all of,” but the meaning is not different.
NNThis bracketed text is not in the DSS or the LXX, so it is suspect of being a later addition. These door-women are mentioned in Ex. 38:8, though.
OOField cites LXX editions which read θεω, which would be a more understandable variant, since the three-letter word in Hebrew (without vowel pointing) is the same as the first three letters of the Hebrew word for “God.”
PPDSS reads מ- “From” instead of “with”
QQThe KJV follows the LXX rather than the MT here. The translations of the NASB (“people are circulating”) and NIV/ESV (“report spreading among/abroad”) are problematic because this Hebrew participle is plural, so it would not match the singular Hebrew word for “report” or the singular Hebrew word for “people.” The extra text in the DSS (and the LXX) provide the plural subject: “reports.”
RRThe DSS supports the LXX with the longer reading. This would appear to be a haplography where part of Eli’s quote was omitted by the MT because of its repetitiveness. The two readings re-converge with the word מעב/ים , with the LXX (plus Cod. X, 19, 82, 93, and 108, and two Hebrew manuscripts) reading a ד in place of the “ / ” (“from serving”) and the DSS & MT reading a ר in the place of the / (“passing over”). I don’t think that the spelling with daleth would be a natural way in Hebrew to express the idea of “preventing people from serving God,” although עבד is used in Exodus to denote worshipping God.
SSESV=someone
TTContemporary versions read “intercede”
UUInstead of elohim (“God/judge”) the DSS reads “to Yahweh” and the LXX matches the DSS!
VVDSS omits “their father” but this does not change the meaning.