Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no older man will be left in your house.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house.
- KJV Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.
- NKJV Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
- NASB Behold, the days are coming when I will eliminate your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
- NLT The time is coming when I will put an end to your family, so it will no longer serve as my priests. All the members of your family will die before their time. None will reach old age.
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
God announced He would cut off the strength of Eli's house so none would reach old age. Judgment would fall on his descendants.
Overview
The Lord declares the coming end of vigor and longevity in Eli's family line. This is a reversal of covenant blessing, where long life signified favor. The prophecy begins to spell out the concrete consequences of the priestly corruption, fulfilled in the deaths that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Sam 22:17–20Then the king ordered the guards at his side, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing, but they did not tell me.” But the king’s servants would not lift a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.
- Ezek 44:10Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.
- 1 Sam 4:2The Philistines arrayed themselves against Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who struck down about four thousand men on the battlefield.
- Ezek 30:21–24“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. See, it has not been bound up for healing, or splinted for strength to hold the sword.
- Job 22:9You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
- 1 Sam 14:3including Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli the priest of the LORD in Shiloh. But the troops did not know that Jonathan had left.
- 1 Kgs 2:26–27Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, since you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David, and you suffered through all that my father suffered.”
- 1 Sam 4:11–20The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
- Ps 37:17For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
- 1 Kgs 2:35And the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab’s place over the army, and he appointed Zadok the priest in Abiathar’s place.
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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 2:31 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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