1 Samuel 2:33

33 Any one of your descendants whom I don't eliminate from serving at my altar will cry their eyes out and be full of grief. Any new children in your household will die by the sword.

1 Samuel 2:33 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 2:33

And the man of thine
. Of his family, which should spring from him: whom I shall not cut off from mine altar: from serving there: who though he shall not be an high priest, but a common priest, as all the descendants of Aaron were,

shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart;
that is, the eyes and heart of his posterity; who though they should see of their family ministering in the priest's office, yet should make so poor a figure on account of their outward meanness and poverty, or because of their want of wisdom, and intellectual endowments, or because of their scandalous lives, that it would fill their hearts with grief and sorrow, and their eyes with tears, so that their eyes would fail, and be consumed, and their hearts be broken:

and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their
age;
or "die men" ^F11; grown men, not children, when it would not be so great an affliction to part with them; but when at man's estate, in the prime of their days, perhaps about thirty years of age, the time when the priests entered upon their office to do all the work of it; the Targum is,

``shall be killed young men:''

it is more than once said in the Talmud ^F12, that there was a family in Jerusalem, the men of which died at eighteen years of age; they came and informed Juchanan ben Zaccai of it; he said to them, perhaps of the family of Eli are ye, as it is said, ( 1 Samuel 2:33 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (Myvna wtwmy) "morientur viri", Montanus, Tigurine version; "morientur virile aetate", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so V. L.
F12 T. Bab. Roshhashanah, fol. 18. 1. & Yebamot, fol. 105. 1.

1 Samuel 2:33 In-Context

31 The days are coming soon when I will eliminate both your children and the children of your father's household. There won't be an old person left in your family tree.

32 You'll see trouble in my dwelling place, though all will go well for Israel. But there will never be an old person in your family tree.

33 Any one of your descendants whom I don't eliminate from serving at my altar will cry their eyes out and be full of grief. Any new children in your household will die by the sword.

34 And what happens to your two sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign for you: they will both die on the same day.

35 Then I will establish for myself a trustworthy priest who will act in accordance with my thoughts and desires. I will build a trustworthy household for him, and he will serve before my anointed one forever.

Footnotes

• [a]. DSS (4QSama), LXX; MT your
• [b]. LXX, DSS (4QSama); MT die by men or die as men