1. 1 Samuel 2:36 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What will happen to Eli’s descendants?

1 Samuel 2:36 (ESV)

36 And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”

Apart from being greatly reduced in number, Eli’s descendants will also experience poverty.1 Eli and his sons had enjoyed great privilege, but this will no longer be the case. Those who were full will now hire themselves out for food (see 1 Samuel 2:5). In terms of fulfillment, 1 Chronicles 24:4 affirms that Eli’s descendants continued to serve as priests, albeit in a subordinate role.2