PRIEST AND JUDGE OF ISRAEL · THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL

Eli. The priest at Shiloh who judged Israel forty years.

LED ISRAELi

40 years No years BC in Scripture

TRIBE

Levi (a priest)

IN THE LINE

14th of 15

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.”

PROPHETS

A man of God (not named) · Samuel

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL: 15 RULERS MOSES → SAMUEL

SUCCESSION

Before and after

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • "Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD." 1 Samuel 1:9
  • He blessed Hannah: "the God of Israel grant thee thy petition". 1 Samuel 1:17
  • He heard what his sons did and asked, "Why do ye such things?", but "they hearkened not unto the voice of their father". 1 Samuel 2:22–25
  • God's charge against him: "his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not". 1 Samuel 3:13
  • His answer to the judgment: "It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good." 1 Samuel 3:18
  • "His heart trembled for the ark of God." 1 Samuel 4:13
  • The man of God said Eli honoured his sons above the LORD, and that his house would lose its old men and its place. 1 Samuel 2:29–33
  • The word was fulfilled when Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood. 1 Kings 2:27

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE LAND

Shiloh and the places of the story

The tribes of Israel · tribe of Levi (a priest). Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • Israel went up yearly to sacrifice at Shiloh, where Eli's sons were priests. 1 Samuel 1:3
  • "The word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision." 1 Samuel 3:1
  • The elders fetched the ark into battle, hoping "it may save us". 1 Samuel 4:3–5

PROPHETS

Prophets of the reign

  • Am A man of God (not named) “them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”
  • Sa Samuel “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.”

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

THE PHILISTINES

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S OWN NUMBERS

No years given

Forty years in the Hebrew and the KJV (1 Samuel 4:18); the Greek (LXX) reads twenty. No year BC is given.

Forty, as in the Hebrew

Keil (1866)

Keil holds that the Greek reading twenty "does not deserve the slightest notice", since Eli would then have become judge at seventy-eight.[11]

Twenty, as in the Greek (LXX)

Moore (1895)

Moore adopts the Greek twenty, so that Samson's twenty and Eli's twenty fill the Philistines' forty years.[19]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 6

1 Samuel 1 1 Samuel 2 1 Samuel 3 1 Samuel 4 1 Samuel 14 1 Kings 2

PASSAGES · 3

1 Samuel 1:1–4:22 1 Samuel 14:3 1 Kings 2:27

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not say how Eli became priest or judge, or that he ever led an army.
  • 1 Samuel does not name Eli's father; his descent from Ithamar is an inference (see identifications).
  • Scripture records no burial for Eli.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • Scholars' viewEli's descent from Aaron's son Ithamar is inferred: his great-grandson Ahimelech (1 Samuel 14:3; 22:20) is "of the sons of Ithamar" in 1 Chronicles 24:3. Keil draws this inference. 1 Samuel 14:3 1 Samuel 22:20 1 Chronicles 24:3 [10]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 276–286 (chronology of the judges).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 322–323 (Judges 5:25–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 357–358 (Judges 8:27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 373 (Judges 10:3–5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 387–394 (Judges 11:34–40).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 398 (Judges 12:8–10).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), pp. 156–157 (Joshua 15:13–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 208 (Joshua 19:50).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 17–18 (1 Samuel 1:1).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 39 (1 Samuel 2:27–36).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), p. 56 (1 Samuel 4:18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1872 printing of the 1866 translation) (1872), pp. 117–118 (1 Samuel 12:11).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), pp. 123–124 (1 Chronicles 6:28, Hebrew 6:13).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. Andrew Harper, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (1872), p. 165 (1 Chronicles 9:22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 87 (Exodus 18:24–27).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 71–72 and note (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 499 (Deuteronomy 33:4–5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxxvii–xlii (Introduction §7, Chronology).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. xxviii–xxix (Introduction, the Minor Judges).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 27 and notes (Judges 1:13).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 66–67 (Judges 2:9).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 107–108 (Judges 4, the two accounts).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 113–114 (Judges 4:5).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 231–232 (Judges 8:27).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 274–275 (Judges 10:4).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 302–305 and note (Judges 11:39).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 310 (Judges 12:8).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. 311 (Judges 12:13–15, on 1 Samuel 12:11).
  • Edward Mack, in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, "Chronology of the Old Testament" (1915), section VII (From the Disruption to the Exodus).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1911), p. xxx (Introduction §4).
  • James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. III (1906), §617, p. 264 (Merneptah's Hymn of Victory).
  • Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 1 (Genesis to Deuteronomy) (1706), on Deuteronomy 33:5.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. S. Black and A. Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI (Chronicles), §III.2.

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