Eli
Priest of the sanctuary at Shiloh, who brought up the boy Samuel. The books of Samuel say that his sons abused their office, that his house was condemned, and that he died on hearing that the Philistines had taken the ark.
Eli was priest at Shiloh when Hannah prayed there for a son, and the child Samuel was left in his care (1 Samuel 1:9–17, 24–28). His sons Hophni and Phinehas took the worshippers’ sacrifices by force and slept with the women who served at the tent. Eli rebuked them, and they did not listen (1 Samuel 2:12–17, 22–25). A man of God, and then the boy Samuel, told him that his house would be cut off because he had not restrained them (1 Samuel 2:27–36) (1 Samuel 3:11–18).
He died at ninety-eight, falling from his seat when he heard that his sons were dead and the ark captured. The text adds that he had judged Israel for forty years (1 Samuel 4:15–18). Kings sees the sentence on his house carried out when Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood (1 Kings 2:26–27).
In the timeline
- about 1070 BC, traditional dateSamuel and the Loss of the Ark
Samuel is called as a boy at the shrine of Shiloh. The Philistines defeat Israel, capture the ark of the covenant and kill the sons of the priest Eli, then send the ark back after seven months. Samuel leads Israel as prophet and judge.