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'''Eli''' ([[Hebrew]] '''עֵלִ֖י''', my God) (1220 BC&ndash;fl. 1162 BC&ndash;October 22, 1122 BC)<ref name=Jones>Jones, Floyd N., ''The Chronology of the Old Testament'', Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2004, p. 279 and Chart 4</ref> was a [[High Priest]] of [[Israel]] and in fact the first of a limited line of high priests who were descended from [[Ithamar]]. He is best remembered as the tutor of [[Samuel]] and also for having two wicked sons and for dying on the day that the [[Ark of the Covenant]] was captured by an enemy.<ref name=Konig>Konig G, "[http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/p99.htm Eli]," AboutBibleProphecy.com, 2001. Accessed December 21, 2008.</ref><ref name=Blank1>Blank, Wayne, "[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/eli.htm Eli]," Daily Bible Study, n.d. Accessed December 21, 2008.</ref><ref name=Easton>Easton, Matthew George. "Entry for Eli". ''Easton's Bible Dictionary.'' <http://www.biblestudytools.net/Dictionaries/EastonBibleDictionary/ebd.cgi?number=T1155>. Accessed December 21, 2008.</ref>

== Family and early career ==
Eli was born in 1220 BC, during the career of [[Gideon]]. In 1190 BC, during the career of [[Tola]], he was old enough to become a priest. He took the office of high priest in 1162 BC, during the career of [[Jair]] and the period of the combined [[Philistines|Philistine]]-[[Ammon]]ite oppression of Israel. How and why he, and not a descendant of [[Eleazar (son of Aaron)|Eleazar]], became high priest, the Bible does not say.

Eli had two sons, named Hophni and Phinehas.

== The sins of Hophni and Phinehas ==
Hophni and Phineahas conducted their duties in an extremely offensive manner. This included misappropriating offered sacrificial meat and even demanding favors from the women who served at the doorway to the [[Tabernacle]] tent, favors of the sort that would be called "[[sexual harassment]]" of the highest order in modern workplaces.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=Blank1/><ref name=Easton/> ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=2|verses=12-17,22}}

Hophni and Phinehas misappropriated the meat in two ways. First, the proper method of making a peace offering to [[God]] was to burn the fat completely, and offer the breast to the high priest and the right thigh to whichever priest would burn the fat and sprinkle the [[blood]]. ({{Bible ref|book=Leviticus|chap=7|verses=29-34}}) Instead, Hophni and Phinehas would send their servant to take a three-pronged fork and thrust it into the cauldron into which the person bringing the offering had placed the meat for boiling, and would appropriate whatever meat was impaled on the fork for Hophni and Phinehas to eat.

Furthermore, the proper procedure was to burn all of the fat, including the [[mesentery]], the [[omentum]], the [[kidney]]s, the [[adrenal gland]]s, and a lobe of the [[liver]]. ({{Bible ref|book=Leviticus|chap=3|verses=3-5}}) The Divine directive was clear: all fat belonged to God. ({{Bible ref|book=Leviticus|chap=3|verses=16}}). Instead, the henchman of Hophni and Phinehas would demand meat with fat still on it, saying that the priests would take raw meat only. Sometimes the man offering the sacrifice would try to compromise: if the henchman would wait until all the fat was burned, then he could have all the meat he wanted. (Even this would not have been the correct procedure, as the priest's portion was the breast and the right thigh.) The henchman would typically reply that if the other person did not furnish the raw meat at once, then the henchman would take it by force.

Eli tried to remonstrate with his sons, and reminded them that if a man committed a sin against God Himself, then he would have no one to mediate for him. The sons would not listen. Finally an unnamed [[prophet]] warned Eli that eventually both his sons would die on the same day.<ref name=Easton/>

== Training of Samuel ==
In about 1153 BC, [[Hannah]], wife of [[Elkanah]], came to see Eli at [[Shiloh]]. When Eli first saw this strange [[Levi (tribe)|Levite]] woman from [[Ephraim (tribe)|Ephraimite]] country, he noticed that her lips were moving, but she was not saying anything out loud. He thought that she was intoxicated and told her to stop drinking. Then Hannah told him that she was not intoxicated, but was praying earnestly to God. Eli told her to go in peace, and added his own wish that God grant her petition. ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=1|verses=9-18}})

Eli probably did not know it, but Hannah's petition was that she have a son. About six years later Hannah came to Eli again and brought her five-year-old son, [[Samuel]], with her. Hannah asked Eli to take charge of the boy and train him for a lifetime of dedication to God.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=Blank1/><ref name=Easton/> ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=1|verses=24-28}})

Eli did as Hannah asked. Samuel stayed with him and even had an [[ephod]] and a sacerdotal robe to wear. ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=2|verses=18-19}})

On or about the year 2864 AM, Samuel, aged twelve, waked Eli three times from his sleep. Each time the boy said that he had heard Eli calling him. Eli had not called him, and when Samuel woke him the third time, Eli advised him to answer the voice that was calling him as if it were God Himself speaking.

The next morning, Eli was curious and uneasy. He demanded that Samuel tell him everything that God had told him. Samuel then gave Eli his most dire warning yet: that God was going to hold the sons of Eli to answer for their crimes, and hold Eli himself to answer for failing to correct their behavior. Samuel also related God's declaration that what God was about to do would make every man's ears tingle. ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=3|verses=17}})

Eli did not threaten Samuel again. Instead he told Samuel that God would do as He saw fit.<ref name=Konig/> ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=3|verses=18}})

== Death ==
On or about October 22, 1122 BC, the two sons of Eli, at the request of the elders of Israel, carried the [[Ark of the Covenant]] into a major battlefield. Israel had recently suffered a humiliating defeat by the [[Philistines]], with four thousand casualties. ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=4|verses=1-4}})

Eli, now old and blind, later received a shocking report from a [[Benjamin (tribe)|Benjamite]] who had escaped the battlefield: the Philistines had inflicted another thirty thousand casualties on Israel, Hophni and Phinehas had both died in the battle, and the Ark of the Covenant had been captured.

When Eli heard this, he fell backward in his chair, broke his neck, and died.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=Blank1/><ref name=Easton/> ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=4|verses=15-18}})

== Judge? ==
The Bible says that Eli "judged" Israel for forty years. This refers to his term of service as high priest. In this sense, every high priest in the era of the Judges, from [[Moses]] to [[Samuel]], was an associate Judge.<ref name=Jones2>Jones, ''op. cit.'', pp. 81-82.</ref> Furthermore, one of the functions of a high priest in the regal era was to "judge" the conduct of the king, as [[Azariah (high priest)|Azariah]] needed to do with [[Uzziah]] tried to offer [[incense]] in the [[Temple of Jerusalem]].

== Chronological placement ==
Hirsch and König, in ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'', state that Eli died after the death of [[Samson]].<ref name=Easton/><ref name=Hirsch>Hirsch EG and König E, "[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=183&letter=E Eli]," ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'', n.d. Accessed December 21, 2008.</ref> But the Philistines were not likely to have lost the initiative solely after Samson's revenge, awesome though it was. Only another major military reverse could have ended the Philistine dominion definitively. So the most likely sequence of events involves the Battle of [[Mizpah]] taking place shortly after the fall of the Temple of Dagon, and both events occurring in the last year of the forty-year Philistine dominion.

The Bible ({{Bible ref|book=1_Samuel|chap=7|verses=2}}) states that the [[Ark of the Covenant]], once recovered, remained for twenty years at Kiriath Jearim. This period is large enough to span exactly the career of [[Samson]]. Therefore, Samson likely began his career in the year of the recovery of the ark, and so Eli must have died seven months before the recovery.<ref name=Jones3>Jones, ''op. cit.'', p. 84</ref>

== Descendants ==
Eli's line lived on, though which of his two sons actually continued the line is not quite clear. The last high priest of the [[Ithamar]]ite line was [[Abiathar]], whom [[Solomon]] removed from office after his treason with [[Adonijah]] the Usurper.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=Blank1/><ref name=Easton/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== See also ==
* [[Israel]]

{{nb Judges}}
[[Category:Biblical Persons]]
[[Category:Judges]]
[[Category:Old Testament]]