to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
do
תַעֲשׂ֖וּןta.'a.Sun
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural + paragogic nun
things
כַּדְּבָרִ֣יםka.de.va.Rim
H1697
a word · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
hear
שֹׁמֵ֙עַ֙sho.Me.a'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
evil
רָעִ֔יםra.'Im
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine plural absolute
dealings
דִּבְרֵיכֶ֣םdiv.rei.Khem
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
people
הָעָ֥םha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Kings 1:6 And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare h…
Isaiah 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for the…
Jeremiah 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be asha…
Jeremiah 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fal…
Acts 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Acts 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vani…
Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 2:11-26
In these verses we have the good character and posture of Elkanah's family, and the bad character and posture of Eli's family. The account of these two is observably interwoven throughout this whole paragraph, as if the historian intended to set the one over against the other, that they might set off one another. The devotion and good order of Elkanah's family aggravated the iniquity of Eli's house; while the wickedness of Eli's sons made Samuel's early piety appear the more bright and illustrious.
I. Let us see how well things went in Elkanah's family and how much better than formerly. 1. Eli dismissed them from the house of the Lord, when they had entered their little son there, with a ble…
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle--This was an institution of holy women of a strictly ascetic order, who had relinquished worldly cares and devoted themselves to the Lord; an institution which continued down to the time of Christ (Luk 2:37). Eli was, on the whole, a good man, but lacking in the moral and religious training of his family. He erred on the side of parental indulgence; and though he reprimanded them (see on Deu 21:18), yet, from fear or indolence, he shrank from laying on them the restraints, or subjecting them to the discipline, their gross delinquencies called for. In his judicial capacity, he winked at their flagrant acts of maladministration and suffere…
Why do ye such things! - Eli appears to have been a fondly affectionate, easy father, who wished his sons to do well, but did not bring them under proper discipline, and did not use his authority to restrain them. As judge, he had power to cast them immediately out of the vineyard, as wicked and unprofitable servants; this he did not, and his and their ruin was the consequence.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 2:23
The Church Fathers
And he said to them: Why do you do such things? etc. He rebuked the guilty sons of Eli, but they did not listen. And the very institution of the old priesthood orders its ministers to be perfect; but the scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests, being wicked, in their ruin despised the paternal voice of their law and priesthood. However, we must not overlook the literal aspect, that he rebuked the sons of Eli; but because they despised the rebuke and he neglected to cast them out as he should have, he perished along with them. What then do we wretched, what do our similars deserve, who delight in sins, who do not dare to amend, who fear their own conscience; and what the entire people shouts, they pretend not to know?
17. Behold, Eli was an old man, and he spoke sharply, because the power of sacred eloquence, even if it fails in the heart of the reprobate, nevertheless before those who rightly understand, subtly searches out the faults of the Jews. For examining strictly, he says: "Why do you do such things as these, the very worst things that I hear from all the people?" But he who, searching, asks "Why do you do this?" clearly shows that they were plunging into the night of heresy without the discernment of reason. Moreover, he says that they had done the very worst things, which he was hearing, and he asserts that those very worst things were from all the people. What is this, except that the whole of the Jewish people had fallen into the depths of heresies? But the cause of that ruin was the reprobate priests. Whence also Hosea, prophesying, says: "The cause of the ruin of the people is the wicked priests" (Hosea 5:1). For the subject people fell precisely because they eagerly imitated their fallen leaders. Therefore, when he says, "the very worst things that I hear from all the people," these things should be understood as being done by the people, not reported by them. This is as if he were saying: "The very worst things that I hear are being done by all the people — why do you do them?"...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Eli — Ascent, the high priest when the ark was at Shiloh (1 Sam. 1:3, 9). He was the first of the line of Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth son (1 Chr. 24:3; comp. 2 Sam. 8:17), who held that office. The office…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Hannah — Favour, grace, one of the wives of Elkanah the Levite, and the mother of Samuel (1 Sam. 1; 2). Her home was at Ramathaim-zophim, whence she was wont every year to go to Shiloh, where the tabernacle…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Songs — Of Moses (Ex. 15; Num. 21:17; Deut. 32; Rev. 15:3), Deborah (Judg. 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2), David (2 Sam. 22, and Psalms), Mary (Luke 1:46-55), Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79), the angels (Luke 2:13), Simeon…
Eli · Indulgent to his corrupt — Indulgent to his corrupt
Hophni · Sin of — Sin of
Judge · .Eli’s — .Eli’s
Obduracy (Hardness) · . — .
Priests · Were sometimes: Profane and wicked — Were sometimes: Profane and wicked
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And he said unto them, why do ye such things?.... As to impose upon the people that bring their offerings, by taking more than is due, and in a very indecent and imperious manner; and especially to defile the women when they came to worship: these were very scandalous sins, and deserved a more severe reprimand, and indeed a greater chastisement than by mere words; Eli should have rebuked them more sharply, and laid open the evil of their doings, and as a judge punished them for them:
for I hear of your evil doings by all this people; the inhabitants of Shiloh, or who came thither to worship, who were continually making their complaints to Eli; which still shows his backwardness to reprove t…
Eli's treatment of the sins of his sons. - Sa1 2:22. The aged Eli reproved his sons with solemn warnings on account of their sins; but without his warnings being listened to. From the reproof itself we learn, that beside the sin noticed in Sa1 2:12-17, they also committed the crime of lying with the women who served at the tabernacle (see at Exo 38:8), and thus profaned the sanctuary with whoredom. But Eli, with the infirmities of his old age, did nothing further to prevent these abominations than to say to his sons, "Why do ye according to the sayings which I hear, sayings about you which are evil, of this whole people." רעים את־דּבריכם is inserted to make the meaning clearer, and כּל־ה מאת…
Eli’s weak attempts to change his sons’ behavior (cp. 2:29) indicate that he had raised them without discipline (3:13).
2:22 seducing . . . women: Eli’s sons had probably been influenced by Canaanite religious practices, which included sex as part of the ritual. • who assisted at the entrance: See Exod 38:8.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 2:22
That they would lie. The explanation is according to the simple sense. Our Rabbis however said10In Maseches Yoma 9a-b. that since they delayed [the sacrifice of] their birds11 See Vayikra 15:29 and 22:6-8. and they would wait until they would see their birds being offered, Scripture charges them as though they had lain with them.12See Maseches Shabbos 55b. Metzudas Dovid translates this phrase as “they would cause the women who assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to sleep there,” thereby not allowing them to return to their homes and husbands.
