Bible Strands
1 Samuel 2:23
“Why are you doing these things?” Eli said to his sons. “I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Eli confronts his sons after learning they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He delivers this rebuke immediately upon receiving reports of their actions from the people.
The words — The text employs לָ֥/מָּה (La./mah) to ask "why?" and שֹׁמֵ֙עַ֙ (sho.Me.a') for "hearing," anchoring the rebuke in the cause of their conduct and Eli's receipt of the reports.
The thread — The theme of unrepentant, publicly known sin appears in Isaiah 3:9, where sinners "flaunt their sin" and "do not conceal it," and in Jeremiah 3:3, which links brazen sin to withheld rain. The contrast with 1 Kings 1:6 highlights how Adonijah’s father never asked "Why do you act this way?" while Eli actively questions his own sons.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that public reports of sin require direct confrontation. It asks the reader to see that ignoring or avoiding rebuke enables the spread of wickedness among the community.
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
And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 1:6 (His father had never once reprimanded him by saying, “Why do you act this way?” Adonijah was also very handsome, born next after Absalom.)
- Isaiah 3:9 The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- Jeremiah 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.
- Jeremiah 8:12 Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Acts 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
- Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
- Philippians 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.