2:22-25
Eli was very old and heard about what his sons were doing. This included financial exploitation and sexual sins. The women they slept with were probably not the equivalent of shrine prostitutes, but rather “me-too” type abuse, i.e. taking advantage of their position of power. Eli rebuked his sons, but did nothing more. What he should have done was to remove them from the position they had. However, it is very difficult to do this when the people involved are part of your family. He does warn them that they are sinning against God, and there can be no answer to that. Of course, we have all sinned against God (Ps 51:4), and Christ’s death on the cross does atone for that, but the point is still well made. All of us will have to answer to God.
2:26
Again, Samuel is set up as the antithesis of the disgusting behaviour of Eli’s sons. Indeed it is interesting how many sons go wrong in the Bible. Samuel, in contrast, grew “in stature and favour with the Lord and with people”. The same phrase was applied to Jesus in Luke 2:52.
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