1 Samuel 2:12-17

Eli’s Sons Misuse Their Sacred Office

2:12 The sons of Eli were wicked men. ¹  They did not recognize the Lord’s authority. ²  2:13 Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: ³  Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork ⁴  in his hand. 2:14 He would jab it into the basin, kettle, caldron, or pot, and everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they used to do to all the Israelites ⁵  when they came there to Shiloh.

2:15 Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s attendant would come and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, “Hand over some meat for the priest to roast! He won’t take boiled meat from you, but only raw.” ⁶  2:16 If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! ⁷  Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

2:17 The sin of these young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they ⁸  treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

1 Samuel 2:22

2:22 Now Eli was very old when he heard about everything that his sons used to do to all the people of Israel ⁹  and how they used to have sex with ¹⁰  the women who were stationed at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Ezekiel 22:26

22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ¹¹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ¹²  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.

Ezekiel 44:7-8

44:7 When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate ¹³  it – even my house – when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You ¹⁴  have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices. 44:8 You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners ¹⁵  to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.

Hosea 4:6-8

4:6 You have destroyed ¹⁶  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ¹⁷ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ¹⁸  the law of your God,

I will reject ¹⁹  your descendants.

4:7 The more the priests increased in numbers,

the more they rebelled against me.

They have turned ²⁰  their glorious calling

into a shameful disgrace!

4:8 They feed on the sin offerings of my people;

their appetites long for their iniquity!

Malachi 2:8

2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ²¹  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ²²  says the Lord who rules over all.

¹ tn Heb “sons of worthlessness.”

² tn Heb “they did not know the Lord.” The verb here has the semantic nuance “recognize the authority of.” Eli’s sons obviously knew who the Lord was; they served in his sanctuary. But they did not recognize his moral authority.

³ tn Heb “the habit of the priests with the people [was this].”

⁴ sn The Hebrew word occurs only twice in the OT, here and again in v. 14. Its exact meaning is not entirely clear, although from the context it appears to be a sacrificial tool used for retrieving things from boiling water.

⁵ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

⁶ tn Heb “living.”

⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss (“no”) rather than the Kethib and MT, which read “to him.”

⁸ tc Heb “the men,” which is absent from one medieval Hebrew ms, a Qumran ms, and the LXX.

⁹ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “lie with.”

¹¹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

¹² tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

¹³ tn Heb “to desecrate.”

¹⁴ tc The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions read “you.” The Masoretic text reads “they.”

¹⁵ tc Instead of an energic nun (ן), the text may have read a third masculine plural suffix ם (mem), “them,” which was confused with ן (nun) in the old script. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:621.

¹⁶ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

¹⁷ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

²⁰ tc The MT reads אָמִיר (’amir, “I will change, exchange”; Hiphil imperfect 1st person common singular from מוּר, mur, “to change, exchange”). However, an alternate scribal tradition (tiqquneh sopherim, that is, an intentional scribal change when the Masoretes believed that the received consonantal reading was corrupt) preserves the reading הֵמִירוּ (hemiru, “they have exchanged”; Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from מוּר). This alternate scribal tradition is also found in the Targum and reflected in the Syriac Peshitta. Several translations follow the MT: KJV, RSV, NASB “I will change their glory into shame” and TEV “I will turn your honor into disgrace”; however, others adopt the alternate tradition: NRSV “they changed their glory into shame” and NIV “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.” For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

²¹ tn The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה (battorah) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7).

²² tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”