1 Samuel 2:29 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 2:29
Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
a donation · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
commanded
צִוִּ֖יתִיtzi.Vi.ti
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
habitation
מָע֑וֹןma.'on
H4583
an abode · noun, common masculine singular absolute
honourest
וַתְּכַבֵּ֤דva.te.kha.Bed
H3513
to be heavy · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
sons
בָּנֶ֙יךָ֙ba.Nei.kha
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
fat
לְהַבְרִֽיאֲכֶ֗םle.hav.ri.'a.Khem
H1254
(absolutely) to create · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
chiefest
מֵרֵאשִׁ֛יתme.re.Shit
H7225
the first · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
offerings
מִנְחַ֥תmin.Chat
H4503
a donation · noun, common feminine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
people
לְעַמִּֽיle.'a.Mi
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
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
Matthew 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made…
1 Samuel 2:13-17 And the priests’ custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in seethin…
Ezekiel 34:2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the…
Malachi 1:12-13 But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, h…
Deuteronomy 12:5-6 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek…
Micah 3:5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not int…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 2:27–end
Eli reproved his sons too gently, and did not threaten them as he should, and therefore God sent a prophet to him to reprove him sharply, and to threaten him, because, by his indulgence of them, he had strengthened their hands in their wickedness. If good men be wanting in their duty, and by their carelessness and remissness contribute any thing to the sin of sinners, they must expect both to hear of it and to smart for it. Eli's family was now nearer to God than all the families of the earth, and therefore he will punish them, Amo 3:2. The message is sent to Eli himself, because God would bring him to repentance and save him; not to his sons, whom he had determined to destroy. And it might…
A PROPHECY AGAINST ELI'S HOUSE. (Sa1 2:27-35)
there came a man of God unto Eli, and said . . . that there shall not be an old man in thine house--So much importance has always, in the East, been attached to old age, that it would be felt to be a great calamity, and sensibly to lower the respectability of any family which could boast of few or no old men. The prediction of this prophet was fully confirmed by the afflictions, degradation, poverty, and many untimely deaths with which the house of Eli was visited after its announcement (see Sa1 4:11; Sa1 14:3; Sa1 22:18-23; Kg1 2:27).
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 2:29
Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice - They disdained to take the part allowed by law; and would take for themselves what part they pleased, and as much as they pleased, Sa1 2:13-16 : thus they kicked at the sacrifices.
Honourest thy sons above me - Permitting them to deal, as above, with the offerings and sacrifices, and take their part before the fat, etc., was burnt unto the Lord: thus they were first served. At this Eli connived, and thus honored his sons above God.
John Gill on 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…
The Church Fathers
And yet sometimes there is more grievous delinquency, if among perverse persons equality is kept up more than discipline. For Eli, because, overcome by false affection, he would not punish his delinquent sons, smote himself along with his sons before the strict judge with a cruel doom. For on this account it is said to him by the divine voice, "Thou hast honoured thy sons more than Me."
And you honored your sons above me, etc. Not content with the portion that I granted you, you also tried to take the firstfruits which were due to me; which can be understood both of the time and of the portion of the sacrifices; because before the fat was burned, they presumed to take for themselves the best parts to be eaten from the victims, as was read above.
26. For "why" is not said except by a judge who urgently investigates. And he who is rebuked for having kicked away the victim of God and His gifts is judged to have done injury without the counsel of reason. It should be noted that he speaks in the plural number: "Why have you kicked away my victim," so that what is said may seem to pertain not only to Eli but also to his sons. For wild animals are accustomed to kick away things clinging to them. For what other victims did the faithful have than to persist in the praises of their Redeemer, to proclaim that Christ Jesus died for the salvation of the world, and that by rising again He restored the life of the human race? And what other offerings were theirs, except to ceaselessly offer thanksgivings to Almighty God for such great benefits bestowed upon them? These indeed the sons of Eli kicked away, because in their rejection of the new preaching, they did not follow the counsel of reason through the sacred Scriptures, but the impulse of savagery. For the Truth desired to call them back from irrational cruelty to the intention of rational counsel, saying: "Search the Scriptures, for you think that in them you have eternal life; and they bear witness of me" (John 5:39). Whence here also it is said: "Which I commanded to be offered in the temple." For in the law, the psalms, and the prophets, it had been written concerning the passion, the resurrection of the Lord, and the state of the universal Church. Therefore the leaders of the Synagogue kicked away with their heel the victim and the gifts of the Lord commanded to be offered in the temple of the Lord, because indeed they strove not to examine the preaching of the holy Church by the authority of Holy Scripture, but to reject and cast it away by the sole impulse of their savagery. For if they consulted the commandments of God in sacred Scripture with an enlightened mind, they would have received the holy preachers, whom they fiercely cast out, as though divinely sent to them. But He who rebukes the sons of Eli, that is, the old teachers of the lesser order, for their irrational savagery, also accuses the father himself of negligence, saying: (Verse 29) "You have honored your sons more than me." 27. As if openly rebuking, he says: They have driven others away, and you have honored those who drive them away. He honored his sons more than God, because while he…
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…
Hophni — Pugilist or client, one of the two sons of Eli, the high priest (1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34), who, because he was “very old,” resigned to them the active duties of his office. By their scandalous conduct they…
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
High Priest, The · Family of Eli degraded from office of, for bad conduct — Family of Eli degraded from office of, for bad conduct
Hophni · Sin of — Sin of
Judgments · Eli’s house — Eli’s house
Parents · Involved in children’s wickedness — Involved in children’s wickedness
Announcement of the judgment upon Eli and his house. - Sa1 2:27. Before the Lord interposed in judgment, He sent a prophet (a "man of God," as in Jdg 13:6) to the aged Eli, to announce as a warning for all ages the judgment which was about to fall upon the worthless priests of his house. In order to arouse Eli's own conscience, he had pointed out to him, on the one hand, the grace manifested in the choice of his father's house, i.e., the house of Aaron, to keep His sanctuary (Sa1 2:27 and Sa1 2:28), and, on the other hand, the desecration of the sanctuary by the wickedness of his sons (Sa1 2:29). Then follows the sentence: The choice of the family of Aaron still stood fast, but the deepest d…
By failing to stop his sons’ wickedness, Eli showed contempt for God’s sacrifices and offerings. Eli benefited from his sons’ activities, and God held Eli responsible for letting them continue.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 2:29
Which I commanded you [to bring in My] Sanctuary. Which I commanded in My dwelling place.
To feed yourselves from the choice parts… This is an inverted sentence [meaning], "you honor your sons more than Me ," ]לְעַמִּי[ before My people, i.e., in the eyes of My people, you honor your sons more than Me. And what is the honor? To feed yourselves from the choice parts of all the offerings of Yisroel. Your meal preceded My meal, as it is stated, "even before they would burn the fat…"20Above verse 15.
To feed yourselves. [לְהַבְרִיאֲכֶם] is an expression of having a meal, as in, "Please let my sister Tamar come and serve [וְתַבְרֵנִי] me bread."21 II Shmuel 13:5.
My people. This reverts to, "y…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Sacrifices · The Jews: Condemned for not treating with respect — The Jews: Condemned for not treating with respect
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).
