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?
Parallel translations
- WEB He said to them, “Why do you do such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.
- KJV And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by 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?
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 14:15“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
- 1 Kgs 1:6His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, “Why have you done so?” and he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Phil 3:19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
- Acts 9:4He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed.
- Isa 3:9The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon 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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