1 Samuel 2:33

33 Et celui des tiens que je n'aurai point retranché d'auprès de mon autel, sera pour consumer tes yeux et tourmenter ton âme; et tous les enfants de ta maison mourront à la fleur de leur âge.

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 ) .


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 Voici, les jours viennent que je couperai ton bras, et le bras de la maison de ton père, en sorte qu'il n'y aura point de vieillard dans ta maison;
32 Et tu verras un ennemi dans ma demeure, pendant que Dieu enverra toute sorte de biens en Israël, et il n'y aura plus jamais de vieillard en ta maison.
33 Et celui des tiens que je n'aurai point retranché d'auprès de mon autel, sera pour consumer tes yeux et tourmenter ton âme; et tous les enfants de ta maison mourront à la fleur de leur âge.
34 Et ce qui arrivera à tes deux fils, à Hophni et Phinées, te servira de signe; ils mourront tous deux le même jour.
35 Et je m'établirai un sacrificateur fidèle; il agira selon mon cœur et selon mon âme; je lui bâtirai une maison stable, et il marchera toujours devant mon Oint.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.