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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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.
- 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 22:17–20The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.
- Ezek 44:10But the Levites who went far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.
- 1 Sam 4:2The Philistines put themselves in array against Israel. When they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.
- Ezek 30:21–24Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword.
- Job 22:9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
- 1 Sam 14:3including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Yahweh in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. The people didn’t know that Jonathan was gone.
- 1 Kgs 2:26–27To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the Lord Yahweh’s ark before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.”
- 1 Sam 4:11–20God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.
- Ps 37:17For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.
- 1 Kgs 2:35The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army; and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
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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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