And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people.
Parallel translations
- WEB He said to them, “Why do you do such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.
- BSB “Why are you doing these things?” Eli said to his sons. “I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people.
- NKJV So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people.
- NASB So he said to them, “Why are you doing such things as these, the evil things that I hear from all these people?
- NLT Eli said to them, “I have been hearing reports from all the people about the wicked things you are doing. Why do you keep sinning?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Eli rebuked his sons, asking why they did such evil things he kept hearing about. His words were too little and too late.
Overview
Eli confronted his sons with their reported wickedness, showing he was not wholly silent. Yet his rebuke was merely verbal and ineffective, lacking the decisive action his office and the law required. His feeble response illustrates how honoring his sons above God led to ruin for his house.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Acts 14:15And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
- 1 Kgs 1:6And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him after Absalom.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
- Phil 3:19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
- Acts 9:4And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
- Isa 3:9The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 2:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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