ELI
A high priest of the Jews, the first in the line of Ithamar, 1 Samuel 2:27. He was also a judge of Israel forty years, and was eminent for piety and usefulness, but criminally negligent of family discipline. For this the judgments of God fell upon his house, 1 Samuel 1:3-18. In battle with the Philistines his two sons were slain, and Israel defeated; but it was the capture of the ark of God that broke his heart, 1 Samuel 1:4-22. The divine threatening was fully performed in the day of Abiathar, which see.