Eli

Etymology

From the Hebrew root 'alah' (to ascend, to go up) or an abbreviated form of names containing 'El' (God). As a word it means 'my God' — famously used by Jesus on the cross: 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?'

Who they were

Eli was the high priest at the tabernacle in Shiloh and a judge over Israel for forty years. His story is one of personal devotion and parental failure. When the desperate, weeping Hannah came to the temple to pray for a child, Eli initially thought she was drunk — but when he understood her grief, he blessed her and said, 'Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.' When Hannah's son Samuel was born and brought to the temple, Eli raised him. It was Eli who taught the boy the words that would change his life: 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' But Eli's own sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were corrupt — they stole sacrificial meat and slept with women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Eli rebuked them, but the text says he 'failed to restrain them.' A prophet came with devastating judgment: Eli's priestly line would be cut off, and both his sons would die on the same day. It happened as foretold. When the ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistines and Eli heard the news, he fell backward from his chair, broke his neck, and died. He was ninety-eight years old. His tragedy is that of a man who served God faithfully in his public role but could not — or would not — exercise the harder faithfulness of correcting his own children.

Family

Children

Hophni,Phinehas

Character qualities

• Devotion to temple service
• Sensitivity to prayer
• Gift for mentoring
• Weakness in confrontation
• Inability to discipline his sons

Key verse

1 Samuel 3:9

Where they appear

Themes

Variants & related forms

Ely · Elie

Related names