1 Samuel 2:24
in 1 Samuel 2No, my sons; it is not a good report I hear circulating among the LORD’s people.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make Jehovah’s people to transgress.
KJV
Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord’s people to transgress.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 2
Commentary
7 notes on this verseBecause their father [Eli] did not chastise them with enough severity … he moved the forbearance of God to wrath so great that foreign peoples rose up against them and killed those sons of his in war in one day. His entire nation, furthermore, was vanquished, and a considerable number of his people fell.
This site's exposition
Now Eli was very old
on 1 Samuel 2:22-25
Eli hears that his sons “were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting”. He rebukes them in words and takes no other step, and his own question, “who can intercede for him”, states the law's limit for a sin against the LORD. The narrator closes with the verdict, “the LORD intended to put them to death”, judgment settled before it falls.
This site's exposition
No, my sons; it is not a good report
Eli names the bad report among the LORD's people and goes no further. John Chrysostom sets this beside 3:13, where the LORD says Eli did not restrain them, and concludes that a mild rebuke without threat counted as none. The gentleness was the failure.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Indeed, Eli did admonish them and say, "Nay, my sons, do not so; evil is the report that I hear of you." But subsequently the Scripture saith, that he did not admonish his sons: since he did not admonish them severely, or with threats. For is it not strange indeed, that in the synagogues of the Jews the laws are in such force, and whatever the teacher enjoins is performed; while here we are thus despised and rejected?
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 2 · Written before 604.
proposed
18. But how would the people of the Lord transgress His commandments, if they themselves were sleeping with women? But because this was happening to them in a figure, it was assuredly prefiguring what was destined to occur at the time of the Lord's Incarnation. For when priests sleep with women, their subjects transgress the commandments of the Lord, because while prelates are stained by the admixture of heresies, the reprobate multitude of the subject Synagogue is plunged into the same corruptions.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Nay, my sons,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle--This was an institution of holy women of a strictly ascetic order, who had relinquished worldly cares and devoted themselves to the Lord; an institution which continued down to the time of Christ (Lu 2:37). Eli was, on the whole, a good man, but lacking in the moral and religious training of his family.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַ֖ל | ʾal | may not [it be] | H408 → | 724 times |
| בָּנָ֑י | banai | O sons my | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| כִּ֠י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לֽוֹא־ | lo'- | [is] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| טוֹבָ֤ה | tovah | good | H2896 → | 538 times |
| הַשְּׁמֻעָה֙ | hashemuah | the report | H8052 → | |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| אָנֹכִ֣י | ʾanokhi | I | H595 → | 359 times |
| שֹׁמֵ֔עַ | shomea' | [am] hearing | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| מַעֲבִרִ֖ים | maavirim | [which are] spreading | H5674 → | 556 times |
| עַם־ | ʾam- | [the] people of | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
אַ֖לmay not [it be]
ʾalH408 →724 times
בָּנָ֑יO sons my
banaiH1121 →4930 times
כִּ֠יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
לֽוֹא־[is] not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
טוֹבָ֤הgood
tovahH2896 →538 times
הַשְּׁמֻעָה֙the report
hashemuahH8052 →
אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
אָנֹכִ֣יI
ʾanokhiH595 →359 times
שֹׁמֵ֔עַ[am] hearing
shomea'H8085 →1159 times
מַעֲבִרִ֖ים[which are] spreading
maavirimH5674 →556 times
עַם־[the] people of
ʾam-H5971 →1873 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 2:20But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
it leads to
- Revelation 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food…
- 1 Kings 16:31
And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then…
- 1 Corinthians 10:18–21
Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?
- Acts 15:20
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
- 2 Kings 9:7
And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the LORD…
- Revelation 2:14
Through
1 Timothy 3:7Furthermore, he must have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the snare of the devil.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 8:21
For we are taking great care to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.
- Colossians 4:5
Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.
- 2 Timothy 2:26
Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.
- 2 Corinthians 8:21
Where this verse is studied
About 1 Samuel
This page draws on Basil of Caesarea, PREFACE ON THE JUDGMENT OF GOD; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 8; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.