1 Samuel 2:17

17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they^[a] were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.

Read Chapter Compare

PREVIOUS 1 Samuel 2:16 NEXT 1 Samuel 2:18

1 Samuel 2:17 in Other Translations

KJV

17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.

ESV

17 Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.

NLT

17 So the sin of these young men was very serious in the LORD ’s sight, for they treated the LORD ’s offerings with contempt.

MSG

17 It was a horrible sin these young servants were committing - and right in the presence of God! - desecrating the holy offerings to God.

CSB

17 So the servants' sin was very severe in the presence of the Lord, because they treated the Lord's offering with contempt.

1 Samuel 2:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 2:17

Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the
Lord
That is, the sons of Eli; for they were the ringleaders who set these bad examples, which other priests followed, and therefore the sin is ascribed to them; and which was sadly aggravated by taking what was not their own, and by taking it in a forcible manner, and before the Lord had his part in the offering, and all this done in the tabernacle, in the presence of God; which plainly showed that they had not the fear of God before their eyes, nor any sense of his omniscience and omnipresence, any more than of his holiness and justice:

for men abhorred the offering of the Lord;
it was irksome and disagreeable to them to bring their sacrifices, when they saw the law of God was not attended to, and the rules of sacrificing were not observed; such contempt of God, such abuse of sacrifices, such injury done to the sacrificers, and such covetousness and sensuality in the priests, that it even set the people against sacrifices, and made them loath them, and neglect to bring them. And this aggravated the sin of the young men, though the sacrificers were not excused hereby, ( 1 Samuel 2:24 ) .

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

1 Samuel 2:17 In-Context

15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

16 If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.

18 But Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.

19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.