When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 18. Named the ark, and so forth There is great reason, by all these circumstances, to hope that Heli died in the state of grace; and by his temporal punishments, escaped the eternal. Challoner.—But many of the Fathers condemn him, and the Scripture says nothing of his conversion, or of that of his children, so that the matter is doubtful. Calmet.—Years. Hebrew “and heavy.”—Forty. Septuagint “twenty,” in which they are followed by many Fathers. Euseb. Sulpit. and so forth—Some reconcile the two texts by saying, that Heli and Samson judged together for twenty years. But the Septuagint is probably corrupted, as the other versions agree with the original. Calmet.