Eli

Eli (meaning the offering or the lifting up) was the high priest of Israel at Shiloh during the formative period when Samuel was called to prophetic ministry. A descendant of Ithamar, the younger son of Aaron, Eli judged Israel for forty years (1 Samuel 4:18). His tenure was marked by failure of parental discipline: his sons Hophni and Phinehas were corrupt priests who treated the offerings of the LORD with contempt and committed sexual immorality at the tabernacle entrance, and Eli rebuked them only mildly (1 Samuel 2:22–25).

God pronounced judgment on Eli's house through a man of God (1 Samuel 2:27–36) and confirmed it to the child Samuel (1 Samuel 3:11–14): the two sons would die on the same day, and Eli's priestly line would be cut off. The fulfillment came swiftly — the Philistines defeated Israel at Aphek, captured the ark, and killed Hophni and Phinehas in battle. When a messenger brought the news to Eli, he fell backward from his seat at the city gate, broke his neck, and died at age ninety-eight. The ark's capture prompted his daughter-in-law's dying cry: "The glory has departed from Israel" (Ichabod, 1 Samuel 4:21–22).