1 Samuel 2:29

29 Why then do you kick my sacrifices and my offerings—the very ones I commanded for my dwelling place? Why do you respect your sons more than me, getting fat off the best parts of every offering from my people Israel?

1 Samuel 2:29 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 2:29

Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice, and at mine offering, which
I have commanded in my habitation
To be offered in the tabernacle, where the Lord had his dwelling; which they might be said to kick and spurn at, despising them, as if there were not enough of them, nor the best of them given to them for their maintenance; a metaphor taken from cattle well fed and fat, which kick and spurn with their feet at even the owners and feeders of them. The Targum is,

``why do ye use force with the holy offerings?''

that is, take them away by force, when there was such a sufficient quantity allowed them for their support. Some understand this of their driving away such, that before used to bring their sacrifices to be offered, but being so ill treated, refrained from bringing them:

and honourest thy sons above me;
by suffering them to take their part of the sacrifices, and even what did not belong to them, before God had his part, or before the fat was burnt; and by continuing them in their office, to the dishonour of God, his name and worship, when they ought to have been turned out by him and punished; but by this he preferred the honour of his sons before the honour of God, and chose rather that he should be dishonoured, than that they should be censured:

to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel
my people?
they took the best pieces of the peace offerings from them by force, having no right unto them; and this they did to indulge their luxury and sensuality, which Eli connived at; and it is highly probable took part of the roasted meat his sons provided for themselves, out of the choicest pieces of the offerings of the people; since he himself is included in this clause, "to make yourselves fat", as his sons might be, and it is certain he himself was, ( 1 Samuel 4:18 ) .

1 Samuel 2:29 In-Context

27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said, "This is what the LORD says: I revealed myself very clearly to your father's household when they were slaves in Egypt to the house of Pharaoh.

28 I chose your father from all of Israel's tribes to be my priest, to go up onto my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the priestly vest in my presence. I also gave all of the Israelites' food offerings to your father's household.

29 Why then do you kick my sacrifices and my offerings—the very ones I commanded for my dwelling place? Why do you respect your sons more than me, getting fat off the best parts of every offering from my people Israel?

30 Because of all that, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: I had promised that your household and your father's household would serve me forever. But now—this is what the LORD declares: I'll do no such thing! No. I honor those who honor me, and whoever despises me will be cursed.

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.