1 Samuel 3:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 3:13
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
properly · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
judge
שֹׁפֵ֥טsho.Fet
H8199
to judge · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
house
בֵּית֖וֹbei.To
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
for
עַד'ad-
H5704
as far (or long · preposition
ever
עוֹלָ֑םo.Lam
H5769
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
iniquity
בַּעֲוֹ֣ןba.'a.Von
H5771
perversity · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
knoweth
יָדַ֗עya.Da'
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sons
בָּנָ֔יוba.Nav
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
vile
מְקַֽלְלִ֤יםme.ka.Lim
H7043
to be (causatively · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
restrained
כִהָ֖הkhi.Hah
H3543
to be weak · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
1 Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.
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.
Proverbs 23:13-14 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Ezekiel 7:3 Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon the…
Ezekiel 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all you…
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…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 3:11-18
Here is, I. The message which, after all this introduction, God delivered to Samuel concerning Eli's house. God did not come to him now to tell him how great a man he should be in his day, what a figure he should make, and what a blessing he should be in Israel. Young people have commonly a great curiosity to be told their fortune, but God came to Samuel, not to gratify his curiosity, but to employ him in his service and send him on an errand to another person, which was much better; and yet the matter of this first message, which no doubt made a very great impression upon him, might be of good use to him afterwards, when his own sons proved, though not so bad as Eli's, yet not so good as th…
he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me--It is evident that his sleeping chamber was close to that of the aged high priest and that he was accustomed to be called during the night. The three successive calls addressed to the boy convinced Eli of the divine character of the speaker, and he therefore exhorted the child to give a reverential attention to the message. The burden of [the Lord's message] was an extraordinary premonition of the judgments that impended over Eli's house; and the aged priest, having drawn the painful secret from the child, exclaimed, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." Such is the spirit of meek and unmurmuring submission in which we…
I will judge his house for ever - I will continue to execute judgments upon it till it is destroyed.
His sons made themselves vile - See Sa1 2:12-17, Sa1 2:22-25.
He restrained them not - He did not use his parental and juridical authority to curb them, and prevent the disorders which they committed. See at the conclusion of the chapter, Sa1 3:21 (note).
John Gill on 1 Samuel 3:13
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever,.... That is, bring his judgments upon them, which should continue on them to their utter destruction; this, as to the substance, he said before by the man of God:
for the iniquity which he knoweth; for the iniquity of his sons, which he thoroughly informed of, and fully acquainted with by others; and somewhat of which he must have been sensible of, and seen with his own eyes, and therefore was inexcusable:
because his sons made themselves vile; mean and contemptible in the sight of men, abhorred and accursed in the sight of God, by taking the flesh of the sacrifices of the people, which did not belong to them, who came to sacrifice,…
The Church Fathers
Benevolence to such persons is like that mistaken kindness of Eli which he was accused of showing his sons, contrary to the good pleasure of God. A feigned kindness to the wicked is a betrayal of the truth, an act of treachery to the community and a means of habituating oneself to indifference to evil.
For no one of those who are now rich, will stand up for me there, when I am called to account and accused, as not having thoroughly vindicated the laws of God, with all due earnestness. For this, this ruined even that admirable old man, though in his own life giving no handle for blame; yet for all that, because he overlooked the treading under foot of God's laws, he was chastised with his children, and paid that grievous penalty. And if, where the absolute authority of nature was so great, he who failed to treat his own children with due firmness endured so grievous a punishment; what indulgence shall we have, freed as we are from that dominion, and yet ruining all by flattery?
For what reason did wrath and death come upon the house of the priest Eli, the righteous elder who was eminent for forty years in his priesthood? Was it not because of the iniquity of his sons [Hophni] and [Phinehas]? For neither did he sin, nor did they with his assent, but it was because he did not have the zeal to demand from them the Lord's vindication and he loved them more than the statutes of the Lord. Lest someone surmise that the Lord manifests His wrath only upon those who pass all the days of their life in iniquities, behold how for this unseemly sin He manifests His zeal against His genuine servants, against priests, judges, rulers, men consecrated to Him, to whom He entrusted the working of miracles, and He in no wise overlooks their transgression of His statutes.
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
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…
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Connivance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Eli · Indulgent to his corrupt — Indulgent to his corrupt
Hophni · Sin of — Sin of
Parents · Indulgent .Eli — Indulgent .Eli
Prophets · God communicated to: By an audible voice — God communicated to: By an audible voice
Samuel · His vision concerning the house of Eli — His vision concerning the house of Eli
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Samuel — Mentioned in scripture: To Samuel
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).
On that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house (see Sa1 2:30.), beginning and finishing it," i.e., completely. דּבּר את־אשׁר הקים, to set up the word spoken, i.e., to carry it out, or accomplish it. In Sa1 3:13 this word is communicated to Samuel, so far as its essential contents are concerned. God would judge "the house of Eli for ever because of the iniquity, that he knew his sons were preparing a curse for themselves and did not prevent them." To judge on account of a crime, is the same as to punish it. עד־עולם, i.e., without the punishment being ever stopped or removed. להם מקללים, cursing themselves, i.e., bringing a curse upon themselves. "Therefore…
his sons are blaspheming God: They were expressing contempt for God through their actions. • hasn’t disciplined them: Eli rebuked his sons (2:23-25), but he did not restrain them.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 3:13
That his sons were blaspheming themselves. It should properly state, 'blaspheming Me' but Scripture euphemized.12 See Mechilta Beshalach 15:7 for a listing of other places where Scripture euphemized out of reverence to ‘ה. Ralbag, however, interprets this verse that “they [Bnei Yisroel] cursed them [the sons of Eili].”
Blaspheming. Meaning, acting irreverantly, and similarly, every curse [קְלָלָה] is an expression of irreverence and disgrace.
He did not censure. I.e., he did not darken [כהה] their faces by removing them from their high positions.
