Bible Strands
1 Samuel 2:22
Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Eli’s condition and awareness at the moment between Samuel’s childhood development and Eli’s direct rebuke of his sons.
The words — The Hebrew זָקֵן (za.Ken) literally means “he was old,” intensified by מְאֹד (me.'Od, “exceedingly”) to mark Eli’s physical decline. וְ/שָׁמַ֗ע (ve./sha.Ma', “and he heard”) functions as the narrative pivot that shifts focus from his age to his knowledge of his sons’ actions.
The thread — The “women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting” appears in Exodus 38:8 regarding the bronze basin made from their mirrors, and the sexual misconduct mirrors the adultery condemned in Jeremiah 7:9.
Why it lands — The text records Eli’s confirmed knowledge of his sons’ exploitation and sexual immorality before any corrective action, establishing that institutional failure begins when known corruption is acknowledged but not addressed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Cross-references
- Exodus 38:8 Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- 1 Samuel 2:13 or for the custom of the priests with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling
- Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,
- 1 Samuel 8:1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel.
- Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
- Hosea 4:9 And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.