1 Samuel 4:12

THE DEATH OF ELI

"A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes rent and with earth upon his head. When he arrived, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road watching, for his heart was troubled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, "what is this uproar"? Then the man hastened and came and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set, so that he could not see. And the man said to Eli, "I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today." And he said, "How did it go, my son"? He who brought the tidings answered and said, "Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the people; your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured." When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken, and he died, for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years."

"A man ... ran from the battle ... came to Shiloh the same day ... clothes rent ... earth on his head" (1 Samuel 4:12). This quick news of the disaster was possible because the battle occurred only about eighteen miles from Shiloh.[5]

"(And when the messenger arrived) Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road, watching" (1 Samuel 4:13). There is no excuse for calling "the road" in this passage the road that led to the scene of the battle as did G. B. Caird who wrote that, "Eli was sitting ... by the road along which the messenger must come, and yet the messenger reached the city without encountering him"![6] To remedy this "impossibility" as he called it, we are advised to accept the Septuagint (LXX) in this place. however, the Septuagint (LXX) is no better than what we have here.

The truth is that Eli was in "his seat," the location of which was near the entrance to the tabernacle (1 Samuel 1:9), and it was not by the side of the road along which a messenger from the battle-scene would have had to travel. Quibbles regarding matters of this kind can be multiplied without any profit whatever. "The gate by which Eli was sitting was not the gate of the city but the gate of the temple area."[7]

"Eli's eyesight had begun to grow dim. (1 Samuel 3:2) ... His eyes were set, so that he could not see" (1 Samuel 4:15). We are indebted to Dr. John Willis for pointing out the progression in these statements, indicating the absolute unity of the whole narrative.[8] Professor Willis also rejected the critical assertion that 1 Samuel 4:15 is a "later insertion." "1 Samuel 4:15, which tells of Eli's blindness, is necessary, because it explains why Eli had to ask the messenger the outcome of the battle. If Eli had not been blind, he would have known from the messenger's torn clothing and the earth on his head that the battle had been lost."[9]

The progression in the revelation regarding Eli's blindness also indicates the lapse of a considerable time period. At the time of Samuel's call to the prophecy, Eli's eyesight was failing. The episode here came when he was totally blind. Evidently, a number of years might have passed, and Samuel had probably reached maturity at this point.

"Eli judged Israel forty years" (1 Samuel 4:16). This is the first mention that Eli was a judge of Israel. The Septuagint (LXX) has "twenty years" here instead of "forty years," but as Keil said, "The Septuagint (LXX) reading does not deserve the slightest attention. It is perfectly incredible that Eli would have been appointed Judge in Israel at the age of seventy-eight (He was ninety-eight when his judgeship was terminated by his death)."[10]

"When he mentioned the ark ... Eli fell ... his neck was broken ... he died" (1 Samuel 4:18). Throughout the narrative here, Eli's chief concern, his greatest anxiety, had centered in the ARK. Even the defeat of Israel, the great slaughter of the people and the death of his two sons did not affect the aged judge with the terrible degree of sorrow and mental anguish that came with the word of the loss of the ark of the covenant. That disastrous news utterly destroyed him.

The implications of the loss of the ark were indeed profound. By the use of the same terminology ("the ears ... shall tingle") in his prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah equated the loss of the ark and the destruction of Shiloh with the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation of the Chosen People to Babylon (Jeremiah 19:3). Keil described the significance of the ark's loss thus:

"With the surrender of the earthly throne of His glory, the Lord appeared to have abolished His covenant of grace with Israel; for the ark, with the tables of the law and the [~kaporeth], was the whole visible pledge of the covenant of grace which God had made with Israel."[11]

Indeed, there seems to be a terrible prophecy in this loss of the ark, pointing to the ultimate hardening and rejection of the racial nation itself, a disaster that culminated in their rejection of the Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.