Eli’s Family Judged

¹² Eli’s sons were wicked men;^(A) they had no regard for the Lord^{(B) 13} or for the priests’ share of the sacrifices from the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling ¹⁴ and plunge it into the container or kettle or cauldron or cooking pot.^(C) The priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. ¹⁵ Even before the fat was burned,^(D) the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast, because he won’t accept boiled meat from you—only raw.” ¹⁶ If that man said to him, “The fat must be burned first; then you can take whatever you want for yourself,”^(E) the servant would reply, “No, I insist that you hand it over right now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force!” ¹⁷ So the servants’ sin was very severe in the presence of the Lord, because they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.^(F)

²² Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel^(A) and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.^(B)